Sometimes a translator is faced with the task of translating a polysemous lexical item of a source language into a target language lacking any precisely corresponding equivalent. In the present article the author discusses two types of problems related to source language polysemy. One examples of each type is provided, for both of which Irish is used as the source language and English as the target language. The first type of problems hinges on the fact that multiple occurrence of a true polyseme involves repetition of one and the same lexical item and the second type of problems arises when it is uncertain whether the multiple occurrence of a polysemous lexeme is intentional or not.