The article deals with the paradoxical phenomenon of translation from 'majority' to 'minority' languages and cultures. Building on Venuti’s (1998) definition of 'minority languages', the author uses the term 'minor defeated languages' for all those codes which are still used, mostly orally, in a situation of fast diminishing diglossia. This is the case of many vernaculars across Europe (in particular of some Italian and German dialects) as well as of some officially recognized and theoretically 'safeguarded' languages, which are thus in the same sociolinguistic situation. Cronin (2003) argues that, while for a language it is important to translate modernity, minor defeated languages can at best hope to integrate cultural products coming from a majority language, a practice in which they can count on an established tradition of quality. This 'last offensive' is mainly carried out by intellectuals (in the sense of Wa Thiong’o 2004), and may be seen as a kind of strategy aimed at 'sucking life' from majority languages and inflating it into minority ones. An especially interesting example of this strategy can be seen in stage translation from classical or majority languages into vernaculars. The paper also deals with general issues involved in stage translation and practical issues involved in translating plays written in 'major' languages into 'minor' ones.