Using an anonymous function to translate keys as described in the Elisp manual at http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Translation-Keymaps.htmldoes not work as expected. Using a named function to map C-e to C-c, the Key Translation is successful: (progn (fset 'foo (lambda (prompt) (kbd "C-c"))) (define-key key-translation-map (kbd "C-e") 'foo)) Using an anonymous function for another keymap binds C-e to the lambda-defined command. (define-key global-map (kbd "C-e") (lambda () (interactive) (message "Inside C-e's lambda"))) But using an anonymous function for key-translation-map does not change behavior of inputting C-e: (define-key key-translation-map (kbd "C-e") (lambda (prompt) (kbd "C-c"))) I find no reason why the last Elisp shouldn't define a Key Translation. The Elisp manual section on Anonymous Functions states "Anonymous functions are valid wherever function names are." ( http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Anonymous-Functions.html) This bug report will be sent to the Bug-GNU-Emacs mailing list and the GNU bug tracker at debbugs.gnu.org. Please check that the From: line contains a valid email address. After a delay of up to one day, you should receive an acknowledgement at that address. Please write in English if possible, as the Emacs maintainers usually do not have translators for other languages. Please describe exactly what actions triggered the bug, and the precise symptoms of the bug. If you can, give a recipe starting from `emacs -Q': If Emacs crashed, and you have the Emacs process in the gdb debugger, please include the output from the following gdb commands: `bt full' and `xbacktrace'. For information about debugging Emacs, please read the file /home/epich/sw/emacs-24.1/install/share/emacs/24.1/etc/DEBUG. In GNU Emacs 24.1.1 (i686-pc-linux-gnu, X toolkit, Xaw scroll bars) of 2012-07-07 on epich-hp Windowing system distributor `The X.Org Foundation', version 11.0.11001000 Configured using: `configure '--prefix=/home/epich/sw/emacs-24.1/install'' Important settings: value of $LC_ALL: nil value of $LC_COLLATE: nil value of $LC_CTYPE: nil value of $LC_MESSAGES: nil value of $LC_MONETARY: nil value of $LC_NUMERIC: nil value of $LC_TIME: nil value of $LANG: en_US.UTF-8 value of $XMODIFIERS: nil locale-coding-system: utf-8-unix default enable-multibyte-characters: t Major mode: Lisp Interaction Minor modes in effect: tooltip-mode: t mouse-wheel-mode: t tool-bar-mode: t menu-bar-mode: t file-name-shadow-mode: t global-font-lock-mode: t font-lock-mode: t blink-cursor-mode: t auto-composition-mode: t auto-encryption-mode: t auto-compression-mode: t line-number-mode: t transient-mark-mode: t Recent input: C-y C-y C-y C-e M-x e v a l - l a s t s e x p - s e x p C-e C-g ( d e f i n e - k e y SPC k e y - t r a n s l a t i o n - m a p SPC ( k b d SPC " C - e " SPC n i l ) ) M-x e v i l a l - l a s t - s e x p ) SPC M-x e v a l - l a s t - s e x p C-e C-e M-x e v a l - l a s t - s e x p C-e M-x e v a l - l a s t - s e x p C-e C-e C-e M-x r e p o r t - e m a c s - q q M-x r e p o r t - e m a c s - b u g Recent messages: You can run the command `eval-last-sexp' with C-x C-e (lambda nil (interactive) (message "Inside C-e's lambda")) You can run the command `eval-last-sexp' with C-x C-e Inside C-e's lambda (lambda (prompt) (kbd "C-c")) You can run the command `eval-last-sexp' with C-x C-e Inside C-e's lambda [3 times] delete-backward-char: Text is read-only [2 times] Quit Back to top level. Load-path shadows: None found. Features: (shadow sort gnus-util mail-extr emacsbug message format-spec rfc822 mml mml-sec mm-decode mm-bodies mm-encode mail-parse rfc2231 mailabbrev gmm-utils mailheader sendmail regexp-opt rfc2047 rfc2045 ietf-drums mm-util mail-prsvr mail-utils help-mode easymenu view debug edmacro kmacro time-date tooltip ediff-hook vc-hooks lisp-float-type mwheel x-win x-dnd tool-bar dnd fontset image fringe lisp-mode register page menu-bar rfn-eshadow timer select scroll-bar mouse jit-lock font-lock syntax facemenu font-core frame cham georgian utf-8-lang misc-lang vietnamese tibetan thai tai-viet lao korean japanese hebrew greek romanian slovak czech european ethiopic indian cyrillic chinese case-table epa-hook jka-cmpr-hook help simple abbrev minibuffer loaddefs button faces cus-face files text-properties overlay sha1 md5 base64 format env code-pages mule custom widget hashtable-print-readable backquote make-network-process dynamic-setting font-render-setting x-toolkit x multi-tty emacs)