All translations have a direction and a distance. Part of the definition of a tessellation is that it is a repeating pattern. I could spin the pattern around a point, or rotate the pattern. That transformation would leave the pattern unchanged. This transformation is called rotation.
Rotations always have a center, and an angle of rotation.
The only other thing I could do to the pattern would be to reflect it across a mirror line and then translate the pattern. Actually, that is one of the types of transformation and it is called a glide reflection. Glide reflections are a separate type of transformation because some tessellations have glide reflections, but not reflections or translations. The Shodor Education Foundation, Inc.