Originally published in 1923 and translated from German by Harry Zohn in 1968, Walter Benjamin presents his views on the task of the translator, which is, according to him, consists in finding the intended effect upon the language into which he is translating which in it the echo of the original. This is a feature of translation which basically differentiates it from the poet's work, because the effort of the latter is never directed at the language as such, at its totality, but solely and immediately at specific linguistic contextual aspects. This article is followed by a note on its translation (by Harry Zohn), by Steven Rendall.