The paper presents an original theory of translation analysis and assessment, applicable to both literary and non-literary texts. The author proposes (1) an ontological definition of translation as metaphor, based on the concept of (2) text as an intricacy of semic/asemic, explicit/implicit qualities, manifesting itself as a triad of texture, image and sense. The author also introduces the notion of (3) transleme, a common asemic or semic unit of SL and TL texts, and a set of analytical tools, borrowed partly from Roland Barthes’s semic code system, necessary to conduct (4) translemic analysis – a comparative study of text and its translation(s) as a sequence of (5) imitative, informative and interpretive translemes.