Menu Link not translating correctly on initial creation through node form
I created a hook to set customized=1 which allowed the menu item to be translatable without editing it directly.

function epc_menu_insert_menu_link_insert($link){
    $link2 = menu_link_load($link['mlid']);
    $link2['customized'] = 1;
    menu_link_save($link2);
}