This article examines the place of translated literature within the Bulgarian literary system, the specific modes of culture transfer from the European literature during three key periods of Bulgarian literary history: the Bulgarian national revival, early twentieth century and during the communist regime. It raises recent critical debates about the place of translated literature within the Bulgarian national literary polysystem that is the process of taking shape, the choice of texts and authors for translation, the translation practices that emanate from the projects of translators and their conceptions of the role of translation, the specific forms of 'the experience of the foreign' (openness and permeability to other cultures, profusion of translation and evolution of perspective in translation).