The Center for Pacific Islands Studies directed a project to translate German publications on Micronesia, part of the Ergebnisse der Südsee Expedition publications, into English. Elizabeth A. Murphy and Ruth E. Runeborg, both of whom were at the time graduate students at the University of Hawaiʻi, translated several sections in 1983. The Ponape volumes were largely translated by Runeborg with editing and additions by Murphy. The translations were never published as problems arose as to cultural content and context.