As a contribution towards filling in the gap between metaphor research and translation research, the phenomenon of "metaphor phobia" (e.g., Fernandez, E., 1996), which has often been observed in translation research, is discussed. Departing from the traditional focus of metaphor translation, which has primarily been descriptive and normative, an attempt is made to reassert a place for the translator and the process of translation by claiming that translators cannot have a macrostrategy, in Hönig's (1995) sense, for translating metaphors since they lack sufficient knowledge of the phenomenon. An effort is made to illuminate what knowledge is required for such a macrostrategy by focusing primarily on source-language comprehension as when reference is made to the translation of metaphors, focus is generally on the reception phase of the translation process, which constitutes only the first step on the long road towards building a translation. (LLBA 2003, vol. 37, n. 1)