Translation is often defined as interlingual transfer, with correspondences sought between two languages. But what if the original text is written in more than one language? This paper addresses a number of situations where bilinguality impacts on the translation process and problematizes conventional concepts of translation. Several categories of examples are discussed. A close examination of works reveals the limits of existing translation theories which are based on a bilingual, one-to-one model and which do not take into consideration features of ‘interlinguality’ and ‘intralinguality’ within texts.