The author suggests that a “phantom translation” should denote an attempt to translate excerpts from a work which are characteristic from the point of view of translation techniques. In the case of La Grande Beuverie by the French writer René Daumal (1908-1944) the point is to find the Polish equivalents of a whole series of names invented by the author in order to label the representatives of ideological systems, jobs and arts which he criticizes in his work. As far as other excerpts from the work by Daumal are concerned, the author suggests solutions that allow rendering some alliterations and wordplays into Polish. A phantom translation of a book is an opportunity to give some thought to the specific nature of translation of an artistic text.