The translation of a literary text written by an author such as Borges, who was so very aware of discourse, requires of the translator an especially skilled analysis of the text, and of the processes involved in its reading. Irby's translation of Las ruinas ciruculares (Yates & Irby 1970) is a successful text-centered rendering of the original, but his decision not to write a reader-centred translation is contrary to Borges' communicative purposes in the original. This is revealed through the used of discourse analysis tools in carrying out this translation criticism exercise.