The "force" command takes as a first argument the method to invoke (currently: "make", "test", or "install") and executes the command from scratch.
...
CPAN::Distribution::force($method,@args)

Forces CPAN to perform a task that normally would have failed. Force takes as arguments a method name to be called and any number of additional arguments that should be passed to the called method. The internals of the object get the needed changes so that CPAN.pm does not refuse to take the action.

So you probably have to say

force('install','SQL::Translator');
[download]

CPAN shell commands are method invocations, basically - shellish perl ;-)

--shmem

_($_=" "x(1<<5)."?\n".q·/)Oo.  G°\        /
                              /\_¯/(q    /
----------------------------  \__(m.====·.(_("always off the crowd"))."·
");sub _{s./.($e="'Itrs `mnsgdq Gdbj O`qkdq")=~y/"-y/#-z/;$e.e && print}