Lewis Carroll’s Alice books and Edward Lear’s limericks and nonsense writings have never been out of print since they first appeared and have gone through numerous editions and translations in all major languages. The reality of this universal appeal is perplexing due to the fact that the nonsense literatures of both of these men are filled with historical allusions to and parodies of Victorian England. Without an understanding of their historical background, one would assume that these works lose a considerable amount of their original appeal. Full of Victorian whimsy, these books have nevertheless found an international readership both in English and in translations into many, even non-European, languages. The purpose of this enquiry then is to explore the many different ways in which nonsense has been translated. Once this is done, differences among translations of the same source text have to be observed and noted. At this stage it may be appropriate to bring in external considerations of history, culture and publishers’ intentions, which can suggest motivations for existing differences in approaches and techniques of translation.