Cakephp: could not save new (non existent) translation for a model with Translate behavior

Question

I need to convert a part of a commercial script to use a translation mechanism. As it was written with cakephp 1.2.6 I decided to use the Translate behavior.

I made the i18n table filled up with the old content for two languages hungarian/hun and english/eng (insert/select). So now I have the same old content for both langs. The owner will translate them. I dropped the translated columns from the model table and made a controller function and view.

Editing is fine, I can edit both data and they are saved to the i18n table perfectly. Now I need to extend the languages to have german translation also. Cake informs me that saving was succesful but it is not in the db. Where is the problem?

Controller function:

function admin_translate($id=null) {
    if (!$id && empty($this->data)) {
        $this->Session->setFlash(__('Invalid id for News', true));
        $this->redirect(array('action'=>'index'));
    }
    if (!empty($this->data)) {
        foreach($this->data as $langdata){
            $this->News->locale=$langdata['locale'];
            $langdata['News']['id']=$this->data['News']['id'];

            if($this->News->save($langdata)) {
                $this->Session->setFlash(__('Translation successfully saved.', true));
                $this->redirect(array('action'=>'index'));
            } else {
                $this->Session->setFlash(__('Cannot save translation. Please try again.', true));
                $this->redirect(array('action'=>'index'));
            }
        }
    }
    if (empty($this->data)) {
        $this->data = $this->News->read(null, $id);
        $this->loadModel('Language');
        $this->set('languages',$this->Language->find('list',array('fields'=>array('language'),'recursive'=>0)));
    }
}

View:

<?php
$html->addCrumb(__('Manage Content', true), '/admin/pages');
$html->addCrumb(__('News', true), '/admin/news');
$html->addCrumb(__('Translate', true), '/admin/'.$this->params['controller'].'/translate/'.$this->data['News']['id']);
echo $this->element('admin/crumb');
?>
<div class="news form">
<div id="current_language_data">
<h3><?php echo __('Current language: ',true).$appConfigurations['language']; ?></h3>
<ul>
<li><span class="label"><?php __('Title: '); ?></span><?php echo $this->data['News']['title']; ?></li>
<li><span class="label"><?php __('Brief: '); ?></span><?php echo $this->data['News']['brief']; ?></li>
<li><span class="label"><?php __('Content: '); ?></span><?php echo $this->data['News']['content']; ?></li>
<li><span class="label"><?php __('Meta description: '); ?></span><?php echo $this->data['News']['meta_description']; ?></li>
<li><span class="label"><?php __('Meta keywords: '); ?></span><?php echo $this->data['News']['meta_keywords']; ?></li>
</ul>
</div>
<?php 
echo $form->create('News',array('action'=>'translate'));?>
    <fieldset>
         <legend><?php __('Translate this News Article');?></legend>
    <?php
        $data=array();
        foreach($this->data as $key=>$field) {
            if($key<>'News') {
                foreach($field as $fielddata) {
                    $data[$fielddata['locale']][$fielddata['field']] = $fielddata['content'];
                }
            }
        }
        foreach($languages as $lang) {
            if($lang<>$appConfigurations['language']){
                echo '<h3>'.__('Language: ',true).$lang.'</h3>';
                echo $form->input($lang.'.locale.',array('type'=>'hidden','value'=>$lang));
                echo $form->input($lang.'.News.title', array('label' => __('Title *',true),'value'=>$data[$lang]['title']));
                echo $form->input($lang.'.News.brief', array('label' => __('Brief *',true),'value'=>$data[$lang]['brief']));
                echo $form->input($lang.'.News.content', array('label' => __('Content *',true),'type'=>'textarea','rows'=>'5','cols'=>'40','value'=>$data[$lang]['content']));
                echo $form->input($lang.'.News.meta_description',array('label' => __('Meta description',true),'value'=>$data[$lang]['meta_description']));
                echo $form->input($lang.'.News.meta_keywords',array('label' => __('Meta keywords',true),'value'=>$data[$lang]['meta_keywords']));
            }
        }
        echo $form->input('id');
    ?>
    </fieldset>
<?php echo $form->end(__('Save Article', true));?>
</div>
<div>
</div>
<div class="actions">
    <ul>
        <li><?php echo $html->link(__('<< Back to news articles', true), array('action' => 'index'));?></li>
    </ul>
</div>

I store the 3 letter code of the used languages in model languages, currently only this 3 is in it: hun, eng, ger