> 				<xsl:value-of 
> select="translate(string(site:xml-file), $baseDir, '')"/>
> 			</site:link>
> 		</site:document>
> 	</xsl:template>
> 
> but keep getting strange, scrambled results...

Scrambled yes, strange no. Read the spec of translate()! Used like this, it
deletes all occurrences of characters that appear anywhere in $base-dir from
the contents of site:xml-file. You seem to be imagining that it does
something completely different.

Take a look at the spec of substring-after and see whether that better meets
your needs.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/