This chapter challenges the privileged position of the author of a source text and considers the reader’s intuition of a target text as a new source of authority. The basis of this statement is the viewpoint that a text is an invisible thread connecting two consciousnesses, that of the reader and that of the author. The production of meaning by the reader is a movement by the reader along this thread to the position of the author. The reader’s previous experience plays a role in this process. The aim of this paper is twofold: to give some idea of the importance of community translation within the South African context, and to relate translation theory specifically to community translation, thus taking the role of the reader into account. [Source: Abstract in book]