Thanks, I do understand how i18n works for plugins. I should have asked if there is a way to do this without having to fork or modify the existing plugin. It seems like the answer is no.
Personally, I think this is a lacking feature of NodeBB.
@pitaj that's true but if not done properly, aliasing links could be very dangerous for a site's search engine ranking. Personally, I wouldn't go down that route (no pun intended ha).