That was 5 years ago, maybe he will change his mind, who knows. Anyway that doesn't matter. My job was to propose, you guys do the decision things  . I guess you can just add it to the bucket list for future translation (if you guys think it's worth translating) and when he comes back, you can just give it a try, like talk to him, asking him for permission and stuff.

I'm aware he isn't active, that's why I said, I'll leave it to you guys.