They may have tried that in the past to no avail. The episode specifically mentions there was several failed attempts at first contact.

A guide only works if you understand the guide. Think of it like this, if I sent you all 1679 ones and zeros from the arecibo message to you, but you didn't understand the concept of zero, you'd have a hard time understanding what the message meant, even if the message itself was self explanatory.

Their language isn't just grammatically different, it is uses a fundamentally different structure, and the Tamarian brain might be structurally different as well, able to easily account for language when young. So there may not be much of a "base language" that the metaphors are built on so to speak.

How would the Tamarians ever develop any advanced technology? Can you imagine an engineering discussion in Tamarian? Like, what is the word for capacitor? "Edward, when he enclosed conductive foil and electrolyte in a metal cylinder"? What would a Tamarian technical manual even look like?

The translator is able to translate the words themselves, but not the context needed to actually understand the translated phrases.

I find it no different than the translation weirdness in the Voyager episode "Nemesis" where the people are understandable, but all the words they choose are just slightly off of what's normally spoken in English. Like.... Nemesis instead of enemy. Glimpses instead of eyes. Trunks instead of woods. Why would the translator use those words instead of more common words that mean the same thing?

"Our communication happens through references to well-documented historical events and figures, but still uses the same vocabulary and grammar as the federation and most of the galaxy's civilizations. Maybe we should share a short summary with the captain, to assist in establishing relations."

"No! I wanna wrassle the monster like Darmok and Jalad!"

They should have sent the federation their history books. The only thing missing from the language is context. The fact that they speak in metaphors means that these stories exist somewhere for them to be referenced.

Their captain sacrificed his life so that we could communicate with them, and we never saw them again for the entirety of the show.

frankly i feel that most social species should be able to create a pidgin even if they have basically nothing else in common.

like.. if we can communicate basic things with bears and deer, i think the idea that we somehow wouldn't be able to communicate at all with aliens is a bit wack

Cat, at the table.

I think half of the episode is the Tamarians genuinely struggling with human language. If the federations translation software wasn't up to the task, it isn't surprising that the Tamarian's software wasn't up for it either.

Based on the episode, it was posibly the first time Tamarians ever had friendly and successful first contact. Because if they had it previously, they might have asked for help translating when meeting new races such as with the Federation. The episode would have went a lot different if they had an Adorian ambassador with them saying "Yeah these guys talk in metaphor and only metaphor".

Shaka is a place, right? So the city was destroyed, or otherwise taken over and no longer part of the prior culture’s territory. Gone.

That’s my take, anyway.