This article wants to examine how a systematic study of the literary translation as a literary phenomenon can be undertaken in relation to isolated and especially literary translations in their immediate environment, the target literature. The purpose of the article is to illustrate the concept of translation equivalence; to show that the common theories are not capable of offering a decent basis and model for the description of existing, especially literary translations; to show the necessity of a purposeful approach for the description of literary translations as empirical phenomena; finally the article wants to sketch a theoretical en methodological basis for such an approach.