It is often argued that translators must mediate between two languages and two cultures: but there are cases in which more than two languages and cultures are at stake, and in those cases translators have to base their work on a sound sociolinguistic basis. Translators of Scottish poetry, and of Scottish literature in general, must grapple with Scotland's 'within-group multilingualism', i.e., with the fact that many writers alternatively use English and Scots. In this article follows, the three traditional methods used to render this alternation are described, and a fourth method is proposed; also, the variables are examined which come into play when the source text is not only synchronically, but also diachronically removed from the translator.