diff --git a/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Mustache.java b/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Mustache.java
index 7804576..6399e94 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Mustache.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Mustache.java
@@ -557,6 +557,15 @@ public class Mustache
             return this;
         }
 
+        public void addTag (char prefix, String name, StringBuilder into) {
+            into.append(start1);
+            into.append(start2);
+            if (prefix != ' ') into.append(prefix);
+            into.append(name);
+            into.append(end1);
+            into.append(end2);
+        }
+
         Delims copy () {
             Delims d = new Delims();
             d.start1 = start1;
@@ -708,6 +717,9 @@ public class Mustache
         @Override public void execute (Template tmpl, Template.Context ctx, Writer out) {
             write(out, _text);
         }
+        @Override public void decompile (Delims delims, StringBuilder into) {
+            into.append(_text);
+        }
         @Override public String toString () {
             return "Text(" + _text.replace("\r", "\\r").replace("\n", "\\n") + ")" +
                 _leadBlank + "/" + _trailBlank;
@@ -761,6 +773,9 @@ public class Mustache
             // would happen if we just called execute() with ctx.data
             _template.executeSegs(ctx, out);
         }
+        @Override public void decompile (Delims delims, StringBuilder into) {
+            delims.addTag('>', _name, into);
+        }
         protected final Compiler _comp;
         protected final String _name;
         protected Template _template;
@@ -791,6 +806,9 @@ public class Mustache
             }
             write(out, _escaper.escape(_formatter.format(value)));
         }
+        @Override public void decompile (Delims delims, StringBuilder into) {
+            delims.addTag(' ', _name, into);
+        }
         @Override public String toString () {
             return "Var(" + _name + ":" + _line + ")";
         }
@@ -863,6 +881,11 @@ public class Mustache
                 executeSegs(tmpl, ctx.nest(value, 0, false, false), out);
             }
         }
+        @Override public void decompile (Delims delims, StringBuilder into) {
+            delims.addTag('#', _name, into);
+            for (Template.Segment seg : _segs) seg.decompile(delims, into);
+            delims.addTag('/', _name, into);
+        }
         @Override public String toString () {
             return "Section(" + _name + ":" + _line + "): " + Arrays.toString(_segs);
         }
@@ -896,6 +919,11 @@ public class Mustache
                 executeSegs(tmpl, ctx, out);
             } // TODO: fail?
         }
+        @Override public void decompile (Delims delims, StringBuilder into) {
+            delims.addTag('^', _name, into);
+            for (Template.Segment seg : _segs) seg.decompile(delims, into);
+            delims.addTag('/', _name, into);
+        }
         @Override public String toString () {
             return "Inverted(" + _name + ":" + _line + "): " + Arrays.toString(_segs);
         }
@@ -904,6 +932,7 @@ public class Mustache
 
     protected static class FauxSegment extends Template.Segment {
         @Override public void execute (Template tmpl, Template.Context ctx, Writer out) {} // nada
+        @Override public void decompile (Delims delims, StringBuilder into) {} // nada
         @Override public String toString () { return "Faux"; }
     }
 
diff --git a/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Template.java b/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Template.java
index 88eb29e..69892ee 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Template.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/samskivert/mustache/Template.java
@@ -67,6 +67,35 @@ public class Template
             execute(context, out);
             return out.toString();
         }
+
+        /** Decompiles the template inside this lamdba and returns <em>an approximation</em> of
+          * the original template from which it was parsed. This is not the exact character for
+          * character representation because the original text is not preserved because that would
+          * incur a huge memory penalty for all users of the library when the vast majority of
+          * them do not call decompile.
+          *
+          * <p>Limitations:
+          * <ul><li> Whitespace inside tags is not preserved: i.e. {@code {{ foo.bar }}} becomes
+          * {@code {{foo.bar}}}.
+          * <li> If the delimiters are changed by the template, those are not preserved.
+          * The delimiters configured on the {@link Compiler} are used for all decompilation.
+          * </ul>
+          *
+          * <p>This feature is meant to enable use of lambdas for i18n such that you can recover
+          * the contents of a lambda (so long as they're simple) to use as the lookup key for a
+          * translation string. For example: {@code {{#i18n}}Hello {{user.name}}!{{/i18n}}} can be
+          * sent to an {@code i18n} lambda which can use {@code decompile} to recover the text
+          * {@code Hello {{user.name}}!} to be looked up in a translation dictionary. The
+          * translated fragment could then be compiled and cached and then executed in lieu of the
+          * original fragment using {@link Template.Fragment#context}.
+          */
+        public String decompile () {
+            return decompile(new StringBuilder()).toString();
+        }
+
+        /** Decompiles this fragment into {@code into}. See {@link #decompile()}.
+          * @return {@code into} for call chaining. */
+        public abstract StringBuilder decompile (StringBuilder into);
     }
 
     /** A sentinel object that can be returned by a {@link Mustache.Collector} to indicate that a
@@ -126,6 +155,10 @@ public class Template
             @Override public void execute (Object context, Writer out) {
                 execute(currentCtx.nest(context, 0, false, false), out);
             }
+            @Override public StringBuilder decompile (StringBuilder into) {
+                for (Segment seg : segs) seg.decompile(_compiler.delims, into);
+                return into;
+            }
             private void execute (Context ctx, Writer out) {
                 for (Segment seg : segs) {
                     seg.execute(Template.this, ctx, out);
@@ -302,6 +335,8 @@ public class Template
     protected static abstract class Segment {
         abstract void execute (Template tmpl, Context ctx, Writer out);
 
+        abstract void decompile (Mustache.Delims delims, StringBuilder into);
+
         protected static void write (Writer out, String data) {
             try {
                 out.write(data);
diff --git a/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/SharedTests.java b/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/SharedTests.java
index 6106934..ca70583 100644
--- a/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/SharedTests.java
+++ b/src/test/java/com/samskivert/mustache/SharedTests.java
@@ -594,6 +594,42 @@ public abstract class SharedTests extends GWTTestCase
                  }));
     }
 
+    @Test public void testLambdaDecompile () {
+        test("Foo {{a}}, Bar {{a}}", "{{#lam}}Foo {{a}}{{/lam}}, {{#lam}}Bar {{a}}{{/lam}}",
+             context("lam", new Mustache.Lambda() {
+               public void execute (Template.Fragment frag, Writer out) throws IOException {
+                   out.write(frag.decompile());
+               }
+             }));
+        // whitespace inside tags is dropped!
+        test("Foo {{a}}, Bar {{a}}", "{{#lam}}Foo {{a}}{{/lam}}, {{#lam}}Bar {{ a }}{{/lam}}",
+             context("lam", new Mustache.Lambda() {
+               public void execute (Template.Fragment frag, Writer out) throws IOException {
+                   out.write(frag.decompile());
+               }
+             }));
+        // custom delimiters are ignored!
+        test("Foo {{a}}, Bar {{a}}",
+             "{{#lam}}Foo {{a}}{{/lam}}, {{=(( ))=}}((#lam))Bar ((a))((/lam))",
+             context("lam", new Mustache.Lambda() {
+               public void execute (Template.Fragment frag, Writer out) throws IOException {
+                   out.write(frag.decompile());
+               }
+             }));
+        // coalesced whitespace around section tags is preserved
+        test("{{#section}}\n" +
+             "{{a}}\n" +
+             "{{/section}}",
+             "{{#lam}}{{#section}}\n" +
+             "{{a}}\n" +
+             "{{/section}}{{/lam}}",
+             context("lam", new Mustache.Lambda() {
+               public void execute (Template.Fragment frag, Writer out) throws IOException {
+                   out.write(frag.decompile());
+               }
+             }));
+    }
+
     @Test public void testNonStandardDefaultDelims () {
         test(Mustache.compiler().withDelims("<% %>"), "bar", "<%foo%>", context("foo", "bar"));
     }