Persistence Exception Translation is the process of converting low level persistence exceptions into high level Spring exceptions.
From the SpringSource Site:
Common data access exceptions. Spring can wrap exceptions from your
O/R mapping tool of choice, converting them from proprietary
(potentially checked) exceptions to a common runtime
DataAccessException hierarchy. This allows you to handle most
persistence exceptions, which are non-recoverable, only in the
appropriate layers, without annoying boilerplate catches/throws, and
exception declarations. You can still trap and handle exceptions
anywhere you need to. Remember that JDBC exceptions (including DB
specific dialects) are also converted to the same hierarchy, meaning
that you can perform some operations with JDBC within a consistent
programming model.
One of the major benefits of this is that exceptions are turned into Runtime Exceptions, in effect you are not required to add the throws declaration to your methods signature.
http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/2.5.x/reference/orm.html