diff --git a/packages/google-cloud-translate/README.md b/packages/google-cloud-translate/README.md
index b1b6940e2ba..706c53b9c97 100644
--- a/packages/google-cloud-translate/README.md
+++ b/packages/google-cloud-translate/README.md
@@ -129,6 +129,12 @@ More Information: [Google Cloud Platform Launch Stages][launch_stages]
 
 Contributions welcome! See the [Contributing Guide](https://github.com/googleapis/nodejs-translate/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md).
 
+Please note that this `README.md`, the `samples/README.md`,
+and a variety of configuration files in this repository (including `.nycrc` and `tsconfig.json`)
+are generated from a central template. To edit one of these files, make an edit
+to its template in this
+[directory](https://github.com/googleapis/synthtool/tree/master/synthtool/gcp/templates/node_library).
+
 ## License
 
 Apache Version 2.0