English (or other European) translations of Pali Canon

Perhaps this should be closed as [a 'shopping' question](https://meta.stackexchange.com/a/158810/139866) , but maybe translations take a long time to make and therefore there are not too many of them, and they don't go out of date quickly. The English texts I use seem unreliable. For example: - One book I have (using a 1925 CE translation) has a translation which (because it uses an abstract noun "the lovely") [I had thoroughly failed](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/4053/compassion-to-friends-stepping-in-vs-letting-them-learn-on-their-own#comment5397_4055) to understand. In that case, [the 'Access to Insight' translation](http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn45/sn45.002.than.html) was clearer (using concrete nouns like 'with people' and 'with friends' instead of abstractions like "with what is lovely"). So I have been using **Access to Insight**. - However when I wanted the Samuddo Sutta, the [Access to Insight version](http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn35/sn35.187.wlsh.html) is (in my opinion) relatively very inadequate compared to [this **Buddha Vacana** version](http://www.buddha-vacana.org/sutta/samyutta/salayatana/sn35-229.html) . I only found these using Google, i.e. I have no expertise about what translations exist. - Can you recommend **any (single) specific translations**? - Can you give **any survey of what (many) is available**? - Or should I ask about **translators** instead of translations (I'd prefer 'the best' translation rather than the 'historically-first' translation)? Even if there are too many, are there **great/classic resources** that any Anglophone should know? - **Printed** books would be on-topic, though I'm warned that such things might be [ten times the size of a bible](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/4019/254) . - **Online** or (at least) **digital** references might be convenient. For example the side-by-side (hyper-linkable) translation feature found on the *Buddha Vacana* site helped me understand (by linking to the Pali word) what it meant when it said "mental phenomena". - A resource for any **European** language (English, French, German, etc) would be interesting - Google Translate doesn't do Pali or Sanskrit, but if there's a (free or affordable) semi-competent **machine-based** translator (accurate although not poetic or idiomatic), that might be good (though it may be hoping too much, to hope for the existence of such a thing yet).