Certainly we are not completely in the weeds, though there are many problematic areas where what we have is not actually a translation but a transliteration. We see these when we read a text and it means absolutely nothing, and the translator cannot be forthcoming as to just what it means. For instance a particular text that at face value has no meaning, has not notes to accompany the text and there are words or names in the text that we do not know the meaning of and which are not in the glossary. To me what we have then is just a transliteration, not a translation. For instance if we take the German word "Fernsehen", then a transliteration is "Far-seeing", and the translation is "Television", but if you had no more knowledge of German and German culture, or for that matter Greek and Latin, than we do of Old Kingdom Egypt, then translation is not so clear, "Far-seeing" could be a telescope, or just somebody who is eagle-eyed. And this shows potential issues with modern languages where we know exactly how they should be translated, yet we are trying to translate a dead language. I realise that this sounds like the argument by "He who will not be named", but it is a fact that we cannot understand all the texts in the PT. Though we can certainly understand them in relation to any references to Osiris the god or the dead king as Osiris.

A later example which I like to trot out is the "Nebkheperuia" "throne name" for Tutankhamun. In all the books I have on anything to do with the Amarna Period, this gets a mention just once, unless I missed something, and in one of Hawass's books, and he makes no comment, no explanation. Reeves does not mention the name that some items of jewelry spell, and just passes of one of the items as a "Coronation scene", which I think it is not at all. So here we are dealing with the late 18th Dynasty, a period where texts are far easier to translate than the PT, and while the name "Nebkheperuia" is easy to decipher, the reason for it's presence is not known, and not discussed. I tried a thread here a while back, and one on the now defunct Egyptian Dreams about this, but no takers, too difficult?, too esoteric?