For prospective runners, there's a translation patch available, albeit not complete:

http://wiki.telefang.net/Wikifang:Telefang_1_Translation_Patch

It should be fine to use. Final Fantasy V has a category for Any% w/ Translation Patch, so it wouldn't be the first. It would (hopefully) open up the game to more runners. There's also a patch for Telefang 2 which is complete aside from Denjuu descriptions:

http://wiki.telefang.net/Wikifang:Telefang_2_Translation_Patch