i think i wanna start my very own arabic translation from scratch.. so if you could tell me what files should i edit and tools i should use i'll start on  ..... and can i make elgg support english and arabic at same time so if the user can't understand english good enough can i give him the ability to choose arabic language interface and vise versa?

any help?!

The Google translate tool (ie:  http://Google.com/translate) could be helpful in your translation work.

Google also launched Rosy (aunt-rosie@appspot.com) on Google Wave for real time conversational translation. 

I am not aware if Google allows Rosy to be used outside of Google Wave, but I do know waves can be posted to third party sites via RSS feeds.