translating heiroglyphics

Rosetta Stone...yes a "key" helps a lot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone

If memory serves I believe hieroglyphics came closer to being an alphabetic language than they anticipated. But some of the best scholars in the world had been beating their heads against a total wall with hieroglyphics prior to deciphering the Rosetta stone.

In any translation mistakes can be made. Some translators also try to get their own message into the translation. Some translate too fast. Others don´t bother about checking if a word can have more than one meaning.
A European writes he drove 100 kilometres and the American translates it to 100 miles.
In an American book which took place in Georgia a person walks out to the Miami burial ground.
In the Swedish translation she walks out to the Miami Indian burial ground. This is correct.
In the German translation she walks down to Miami cementry. Which is absolutely wrong and also impossible. You don´t walk from Georgia to Miami in Florida and back within a couple of hours.Also there is a difference in a burial ground and a cementry.