Views is a wonderful module, but I had a problem where I wanted different header content per language. Add following code to the different views files and you are able to translate per language. In short: I use the i18n_variable table in the database to store the content based on the languague you are editing your view in. If you want to translate the content into another language, use the translations block to switch. Important: do not switch languagues with the language switcher, this won't work! It's tested with views-4.7.x-1.5, but should be easy to implement in other versions (line numbers may vary though). One last thing: you can re-use this code for the footer and empty text off course.

Any suggestions/remarks are welcome. Good luck!
Kris

// insert into 'modules/views/views.module' in the '_views_delete_view'
// function (after the if statement around line 972)
// These 2 lines delete all page_header content depending on 
// the view you are deleting 
$vid = $view->vid;
db_query("DELETE FROM {i18n_variable} WHERE name='page_header_$vid'");

// insert into 'modules/views/views.module' around line 1112 
// (before the '// Update the view in the database:' comment)
// these 5 lines stores the content you enter into the page_header textarea
$header_var = $_POST['edit']['page_header'];
$lang = _i18n_get_lang();
$vid = $view->vid;
db_query("DELETE FROM {i18n_variable} WHERE name='page_header_$vid' 
	AND language='%s'", $lang );
db_query("INSERT INTO {i18n_variable} (language, name, value) 
	VALUES('%s', 'page_header_$vid', '%s')", $lang, $header_var);

// insert into 'modules/views/views_ui.module' above line 818. It should 
// be above '$form['page-info']['page_header_fieldset']['page_header'] = array('
// This loads the content of the page_header depending on language
$lang = _i18n_get_lang();
$vid = $view->vid;
$i18n_header_var = db_fetch_object(db_query("SELECT * FROM {i18n_variable} 
	WHERE language='%s' AND name = 'page_header_$vid'", $lang));
// same file, few lines underneath (around 820), 
//change '$view->page_header' to '$i18n_header_var->value'
'#default_value' => $i18n_header_var->value,

// insert into '"modules/views/views.module' above line 1593
// (1593 should start with if ($view->$var) {
// this loads the correct header depending on language and view
$lang = _i18n_get_lang();
$vid = $view->vid;
$i18n_header_var = db_fetch_object(db_query("SELECT * FROM {i18n_variable}
	 WHERE language='%s' AND name = 'page_header_$vid'", $lang));
if (!empty($i18n_header_var->value) && $textarea == "header")
	$view->$var = $i18n_header_var->value;