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A friend of mine has published a short story in Hebrew, and I'm currently translating it into English, for submission to short fiction magazines.
Is any information about the original publication necessary in our initial submission, beyond
"This story was originally published in
Publication Name X, inCountry Y, inLanguage Z."
?
The magazine is most interested in the legal situation. So you should mention if the offeror (probably your friend) holds all necessary rights of the translation (made by you).
Also it should be clear that the story is not licensed in its original version in a way that would make it impossible for the magazine to publish it (like: a different publisher holds the translation rights).
You should make it crystal-clear. You do not want the magazine to dismiss it and take the next offered story, just because the legal issues are uncertain. They could write an email and ask your friend, but maybe it's just not worth the effort for them.
