The English structure "a(n) N1 of N2" is often non-problematical when translated into French, but can create difficulties when it contains a metaphor. Using examples taken from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night and its two translations in French, the article proposes to draw attention to the problems involved in translating the metaphor: sometimes the metaphorical element contained in «an N1 of N2» slips simply into French; at other times the complex diversity of relations set up in English by this structure «a(n) N1 of N2» forces the translator to use strategies that re-formulate on a large scale. The translation becomes more complicated still with Fitzgerald’s poetic prose, where an array of words, used metaphorically and with a specific echo, enables the author to weave a whole network of links throughout the novel. This article examines the extent to which the two translations render this coherence, and suggests possible ways of treating the syntactical, semantic and stylistic problems of the metaphor in this structure.