diff --git a/app/api/translate/route.ts b/app/api/translate/route.ts
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..b544e2b1
--- /dev/null
+++ b/app/api/translate/route.ts
@@ -0,0 +1,298 @@
+import { NextRequest, NextResponse } from 'next/server';
+
+// Host-side proxy backing the "Translate" plugin (manifest apiPostPaths:
+// ["/api/translate"]). The plugin slot iframe POSTs { text, target, source,
+// provider } here via api.http.post; we forward to a free translation backend
+// and return { translatedText, detectedSource } in a stable shape.
+//
+// Two providers:
+//   - "mymemory"     — public MyMemory API, no configuration required. Its
+//                       langpair needs an explicit source language, so when the
+//                       plugin asks for "auto" we detect it locally first.
+//   - "libretranslate" — only available when the host sets LIBRETRANSLATE_URL
+//                       (and optionally LIBRETRANSLATE_API_KEY). Supports native
+//                       source auto-detection.
+
+export const runtime = 'nodejs';
+
+const MAX_CHARS = 5000;
+// Long bodies are split into ~480-char chunks for MyMemory and translated
+// sequentially, so allow enough headroom for ~10 round-trips.
+const TIMEOUT_MS = 25000;
+
+type Provider = 'mymemory' | 'libretranslate';
+
+interface TranslateBody {
+  text?: unknown;
+  target?: unknown;
+  source?: unknown;
+  provider?: unknown;
+}
+
+interface TranslateResult {
+  translatedText: string;
+  detectedSource?: string;
+}
+
+// ─── Lightweight language detection ───────────────────────────
+//
+// MyMemory has no auto-detect, so we infer a source language from the text.
+// Non-Latin scripts are decided by Unicode range; Latin-script European
+// languages are scored by stop-word frequency. Detection only needs to be good
+// enough to (a) pick a sensible langpair and (b) let the plugin skip messages
+// already in the target language.
+
+const SCRIPT_RANGES: ReadonlyArray<[RegExp, string]> = [
+  [/[぀-ヿ]/, 'ja'], // Hiragana / Katakana
+  [/[가-힯]/, 'ko'], // Hangul
+  [/[一-鿿]/, 'zh'], // CJK ideographs (after JP/KR checks)
+  [/[Ѐ-ӿ]/, 'ru'], // Cyrillic (ru vs uk refined below)
+  [/[Ͱ-Ͽ]/, 'el'], // Greek
+  [/[؀-ۿ]/, 'ar'], // Arabic
+  [/[֐-׿]/, 'he'], // Hebrew
+  [/[ऀ-ॿ]/, 'hi'], // Devanagari
+];
+
+// Distinctive stop words per Latin-script language from the manifest's option
+// list. Kept small and high-signal to avoid cross-language collisions.
+const LATIN_STOPWORDS: Record<string, readonly string[]> = {
+  en: ['the', 'and', 'you', 'that', 'with', 'for', 'this', 'have', 'are'],
+  de: ['der', 'die', 'und', 'das', 'ist', 'nicht', 'mit', 'sie', 'ein', 'auch'],
+  fr: ['les', 'des', 'une', 'est', 'pour', 'que', 'vous', 'dans', 'avec', 'pas'],
+  es: ['que', 'los', 'una', 'por', 'con', 'para', 'como', 'pero', 'más', 'esta'],
+  it: ['che', 'non', 'per', 'una', 'sono', 'con', 'come', 'questo', 'anche', 'della'],
+  pt: ['que', 'não', 'uma', 'com', 'para', 'como', 'mais', 'você', 'está', 'isso'],
+  nl: ['het', 'een', 'van', 'dat', 'niet', 'met', 'voor', 'aan', 'zijn', 'maar'],
+  pl: ['nie', 'jest', 'się', 'ale', 'oraz', 'tego', 'jak', 'tym', 'przez', 'dla'],
+  sv: ['och', 'att', 'det', 'som', 'för', 'med', 'inte', 'den', 'till', 'har'],
+  no: ['og', 'det', 'som', 'for', 'med', 'ikke', 'har', 'til', 'denne', 'jeg'],
+  da: ['og', 'det', 'som', 'for', 'med', 'ikke', 'har', 'til', 'denne', 'jeg'],
+  fi: ['että', 'olen', 'tämä', 'kanssa', 'mutta', 'sekä', 'ei', 'on', 'ja', 'jotta'],
+  cs: ['není', 'jsem', 'pro', 'ale', 'jako', 'tento', 'také', 'přes', 'jsou', 'své'],
+  ro: ['este', 'pentru', 'care', 'dar', 'sunt', 'această', 'mai', 'din', 'sau', 'nu'],
+  hu: ['hogy', 'nem', 'egy', 'van', 'ezt', 'vagy', 'mint', 'csak', 'ezzel', 'így'],
+  tr: ['bir', 'için', 'değil', 'bu', 'çok', 'daha', 'ama', 'gibi', 've', 'ile'],
+};
+
+function detectLanguage(text: string): string {
+  const sample = text.slice(0, 1000);
+  for (const [range, lang] of SCRIPT_RANGES) {
+    if (range.test(sample)) {
+      // Ukrainian shares Cyrillic with Russian; its unique glyphs decide it.
+      if (lang === 'ru' && /[єіїґ]/.test(sample)) return 'uk';
+      return lang;
+    }
+  }
+
+  const words = sample.toLowerCase().match(/[a-zà-ÿčśžłńęąółżźć]+/gi) || [];
+  if (words.length === 0) return 'en';
+  const counts: Record<string, number> = {};
+  const wordSet = new Set(words);
+  for (const [lang, stops] of Object.entries(LATIN_STOPWORDS)) {
+    let score = 0;
+    for (const stop of stops) if (wordSet.has(stop)) score += 1;
+    counts[lang] = score;
+  }
+  let best = 'en';
+  let bestScore = -1;
+  for (const [lang, score] of Object.entries(counts)) {
+    if (score > bestScore) {
+      best = lang;
+      bestScore = score;
+    }
+  }
+  return bestScore > 0 ? best : 'en';
+}
+
+function baseLang(code: string): string {
+  return String(code || '').toLowerCase().split('-')[0];
+}
+
+// ─── Chunking ─────────────────────────────────────────────────
+//
+// MyMemory's free endpoint caps each request's `q` at 500 characters and
+// silently returns only the translated prefix beyond that — which is why long
+// emails came back truncated ("…about Sel…"). We split the text into
+// line-aware chunks under the limit, translate each, then rejoin so the whole
+// body is covered.
+
+const MYMEMORY_CHUNK = 480;
+
+function chunkText(text: string, max: number): string[] {
+  const chunks: string[] = [];
+  let cur = '';
+  const flush = () => {
+    if (cur) {
+      chunks.push(cur);
+      cur = '';
+    }
+  };
+  for (const line of text.split('\n')) {
+    if (line.length > max) {
+      flush();
+      // A single over-long line (e.g. a long URL list): split on words, and
+      // hard-cut any word that is itself longer than the limit.
+      let seg = '';
+      for (const word of line.split(' ')) {
+        const piece = seg ? seg + ' ' + word : word;
+        if (piece.length > max) {
+          if (seg) {
+            chunks.push(seg);
+            seg = '';
+          }
+          if (word.length > max) {
+            for (let i = 0; i < word.length; i += max) chunks.push(word.slice(i, i + max));
+          } else {
+            seg = word;
+          }
+        } else {
+          seg = piece;
+        }
+      }
+      if (seg) chunks.push(seg);
+      continue;
+    }
+    if (cur && cur.length + 1 + line.length > max) flush();
+    cur = cur ? cur + '\n' + line : line;
+  }
+  flush();
+  return chunks;
+}
+
+// ─── Providers ────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+async function mymemoryRequest(
+  q: string,
+  langpair: string,
+  signal: AbortSignal,
+): Promise<string> {
+  const url = new URL('https://api.mymemory.translated.net/get');
+  url.searchParams.set('q', q);
+  url.searchParams.set('langpair', langpair);
+
+  const res = await fetch(url.toString(), {
+    signal,
+    headers: { 'User-Agent': 'JMAP-Webmail/1.0 Translate-Plugin' },
+  });
+  const data = (await res.json().catch(() => null)) as
+    | { responseStatus?: number | string; responseData?: { translatedText?: string }; responseDetails?: string }
+    | null;
+  if (!res.ok || !data) {
+    throw new Error(`MyMemory returned ${res.status}`);
+  }
+  const status = Number(data.responseStatus);
+  if (status && status !== 200) {
+    throw new Error(data.responseDetails || `MyMemory error ${status}`);
+  }
+  const translatedText = data.responseData?.translatedText || '';
+  if (!translatedText) {
+    throw new Error('MyMemory returned no translation');
+  }
+  return translatedText;
+}
+
+async function translateMyMemory(
+  text: string,
+  source: string,
+  target: string,
+  signal: AbortSignal,
+): Promise<TranslateResult> {
+  const detected = source === 'auto' || !source ? detectLanguage(text) : baseLang(source);
+  const tgt = baseLang(target);
+  // Nothing to do if already in the target language; the plugin skips display.
+  if (detected === tgt) {
+    return { translatedText: text, detectedSource: detected };
+  }
+  const langpair = `${detected}|${tgt}`;
+  const chunks = chunkText(text, MYMEMORY_CHUNK);
+  // Sequential to stay friendly to MyMemory's free-tier rate limits; emails are
+  // usually one or two chunks.
+  const translated: string[] = [];
+  for (const chunk of chunks) {
+    translated.push(await mymemoryRequest(chunk, langpair, signal));
+  }
+  return { translatedText: translated.join('\n'), detectedSource: detected };
+}
+
+async function translateLibre(
+  text: string,
+  source: string,
+  target: string,
+  signal: AbortSignal,
+): Promise<TranslateResult> {
+  const endpoint = process.env.LIBRETRANSLATE_URL;
+  if (!endpoint) {
+    throw new Error('LibreTranslate is not configured on this server');
+  }
+  const apiKey = process.env.LIBRETRANSLATE_API_KEY;
+  const url = endpoint.replace(/\/+$/, '') + '/translate';
+  const res = await fetch(url, {
+    method: 'POST',
+    signal,
+    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' },
+    body: JSON.stringify({
+      q: text,
+      source: source || 'auto',
+      target: baseLang(target),
+      format: 'text',
+      ...(apiKey ? { api_key: apiKey } : {}),
+    }),
+  });
+  const data = (await res.json().catch(() => null)) as
+    | { translatedText?: string; detectedLanguage?: { language?: string }; error?: string }
+    | null;
+  if (!res.ok || !data) {
+    throw new Error(data?.error || `LibreTranslate returned ${res.status}`);
+  }
+  if (!data.translatedText) {
+    throw new Error(data.error || 'LibreTranslate returned no translation');
+  }
+  return {
+    translatedText: data.translatedText,
+    detectedSource: data.detectedLanguage?.language || (source !== 'auto' ? baseLang(source) : undefined),
+  };
+}
+
+// ─── Route ────────────────────────────────────────────────────
+
+export async function POST(request: NextRequest) {
+  let body: TranslateBody;
+  try {
+    body = (await request.json()) as TranslateBody;
+  } catch {
+    return NextResponse.json({ error: 'Invalid request body' }, { status: 400 });
+  }
+
+  const text = typeof body.text === 'string' ? body.text.trim() : '';
+  const target = typeof body.target === 'string' && body.target.trim() ? body.target.trim() : 'en';
+  const source = typeof body.source === 'string' && body.source.trim() ? body.source.trim() : 'auto';
+  const provider: Provider = body.provider === 'libretranslate' ? 'libretranslate' : 'mymemory';
+
+  if (!text) {
+    return NextResponse.json({ error: 'No text to translate' }, { status: 400 });
+  }
+  if (text.length > MAX_CHARS) {
+    return NextResponse.json(
+      { error: `Text exceeds the ${MAX_CHARS}-character limit` },
+      { status: 413 },
+    );
+  }
+
+  const controller = new AbortController();
+  const timeout = setTimeout(() => controller.abort(), TIMEOUT_MS);
+  try {
+    const result =
+      provider === 'libretranslate'
+        ? await translateLibre(text, source, target, controller.signal)
+        : await translateMyMemory(text, source, target, controller.signal);
+    return NextResponse.json(result, { status: 200 });
+  } catch (error: unknown) {
+    if (error instanceof Error && error.name === 'AbortError') {
+      return NextResponse.json({ error: 'Translation timed out' }, { status: 504 });
+    }
+    const message = error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Translation failed';
+    return NextResponse.json({ error: message }, { status: 502 });
+  } finally {
+    clearTimeout(timeout);
+  }
+}
diff --git a/lib/plugin-projection.ts b/lib/plugin-projection.ts
index 3003bcd6..5199db8e 100644
--- a/lib/plugin-projection.ts
+++ b/lib/plugin-projection.ts
@@ -5,6 +5,40 @@
 import type { Email } from '@/lib/jmap/types';
 import type { EmailReadView } from '@/lib/plugin-types';
 
+// Resolve a message's plain-text body from its JMAP body parts. Plugins that
+// translate or scan content need the real body, not just the short `preview`
+// snippet. Prefers text/plain parts; falls back to stripped HTML, then preview.
+function plainTextFromEmail(email: Email): string {
+  const values = email.bodyValues || {};
+  const collect = (parts?: { partId: string }[]) =>
+    (parts || [])
+      .map((p) => values[p.partId]?.value)
+      .filter((v): v is string => typeof v === 'string' && v.length > 0)
+      .join('\n')
+      .trim();
+
+  const text = collect(email.textBody);
+  if (text) return text;
+
+  const html = collect(email.htmlBody);
+  if (html) {
+    return html
+      .replace(/<(script|style)[\s\S]*?<\/\1>/gi, ' ')
+      .replace(/<[^>]+>/g, ' ')
+      .replace(/&nbsp;/gi, ' ')
+      .replace(/&amp;/gi, '&')
+      .replace(/&lt;/gi, '<')
+      .replace(/&gt;/gi, '>')
+      .replace(/&#39;|&apos;/gi, "'")
+      .replace(/&quot;/gi, '"')
+      .replace(/[ \t]{2,}/g, ' ')
+      .replace(/\n{3,}/g, '\n\n')
+      .trim();
+  }
+
+  return (email.preview || '').trim();
+}
+
 export function emailToReadView(email: Email): EmailReadView {
   return {
     id: email.id,
@@ -19,6 +53,7 @@ export function emailToReadView(email: Email): EmailReadView {
     isFlagged: !!email.keywords?.['$flagged'],
     hasAttachment: email.hasAttachment,
     preview: email.preview || '',
+    text: plainTextFromEmail(email),
     keywords: Object.keys(email.keywords || {}).filter(k => email.keywords[k]),
     auth: email.authenticationResults,
   };
diff --git a/lib/plugin-types.ts b/lib/plugin-types.ts
index 1eec2ddf..ca4ed70e 100644
--- a/lib/plugin-types.ts
+++ b/lib/plugin-types.ts
@@ -374,6 +374,10 @@ export interface EmailReadView {
   hasAttachment: boolean;
   preview: string;
   keywords: string[];
+  /** Full plain-text body of the message (HTML-only bodies are stripped to
+   *  text). Empty string when the host hasn't loaded the body. Same
+   *  `email:read` sensitivity as the rest of this view. */
+  text: string;
   /**
    * Parsed Authentication-Results header (SPF, DKIM, DMARC, reverse-DNS).
    * Absent on stores that didn't parse the header (e.g. bodies not yet