The mechanisms available to signal the distinction between theme or information already known to readers and rheme or new information vary from language to language. In this paper, the author shows how inflection, rather than word order, largely fulfils this function in Russian. A translator then has to decide how to convey the theme-rheme structure of an original text using whatever means the target language can offer. A ‘good fit’ requires replication of the original theme-rheme structure, communicative value, message and thrust, while respecting the target language’s grammar and style. Yet, just as willingness to risk deviance may mark a good writer, so also it may mark a good translator.