The study reports on an investigation of metaphor translation (English-Finnish). The theoretical framework is cognitive linguistics, and the aim is to test the “cognitive translation” hypothesis (if source language and target language metaphors use different conceptual mappings, translation requires not only a linguistic, but also a conceptual shift which, in turn, requires more processing effort). The data comprise think-aloud protocols from five students of translation. The findings support the cognitive translation hypothesis. In addition, the best translations were produced by those who were able to make the conceptual shift in translating metaphors.