Translated literature constitutes a system within any given literary polysystem. English translations of early Irish literature form a seemingly radically polarized system, consisting of popular literary translations and scholarly translations, the former monuments of style taking their place among the literary works of twentieth-century Ireland, the latter almost unreadable. This differentiated system of translation illustrates the necessity of close historical analysis in descriptive studies of translation and the unworkability of a facile historical determinism in translation studies. In the case of the English translations of Irish literature, historical and political circumstances related to Ireland's colonial history resulted in a bipolar field of translations that serve the ideological context in complementary ways. The translation traditions are symbiotic, each made possible only by the existence of the other. The chapter concludes with an exploration of the implications of this translation system for approaches to translation theory and practice based on binary typologies.