[development] Translating database fields

[Jeremy Andrews]

Hello,

I'm looking for advice on the proper way to resolve this issue:
  http://drupal.org/node/571742

Summary:
The support module [1] defines four default states ("new", "active",
"pending", "closed") and four default priorities ("low", "normal",
"high", "critical").  These fields are defined in the database to allow
the easy creation of custom states and priorities.  Because of this, I'm
unsure on how to correctly make them translatable.

The t() api documentation page [2] explicitly states, "however tempting
it is, custom data from user input or other non-code sources should not
be passed through t()."  It goes on to explain that doing so can lead to
orphaned words, mistranslation of non-English words, etc.  My question
then is, what is the correct way to make these states and priorities
translatable?

Yes, they can simply be changed in the database if you'd like to change
them to another language, but some websites want the ability to
translate them into multiple languages.

If replying, please do so in the issue linked above.

Thanks, 
 -Jeremy

[1] http://drupal.org/project/support 
[2] http://api.drupal.org/api/function/t/6