The allegory of the marriage of languages was inspired by Herder's comparison of a language not yet profaned by trnaslations with a virgin. This simile was logically extended to the simile of translation as marriage of languages. The first part of the treatise presents the allegory. The translator wanders through the centuries and goes courting. In the second part the allegory is solved. The third part tires to answer the question of how far the allegory is to be considered as a contribution to the history of translation. The greatest stress is laid uopn the open end of the allegory: the modern translations of ancient literature are criticized so as to focus attention on the question of haw far a historian of translation should consider his present point of view and interest when writing a history of translation.