Every literary translation constitutes a different test of the translator’s skill, but certain problems recur with disquieting frequency. Beyond the routine (e.g., questions of tone, register, and level of discourse) often lie more complex, thorny challenges, which might be called a chamber of horrors. This article examines some of them. Among those discussed (with examples from Brazilian and European Portuguese originals) are back translation, flora and fauna, foods, dialogue of illiterate or semiliterate characters, unusual metaphors, inaccurate source material, onomatopoeia, dialects, the unrecognized idiom, and metalanguage.