Word play seems to bear the stigma of 'that which cannot be translated'. At the most, the translator's literary talent is used as the only valid criterion for equivalence. Furthermore, certain contemporary authors present a peculiar use of word play as both utterance and sign. Only the systematic consideration of the different figures that affect the signifier, that is, the phonic substance of the words, will allow us, using rhetoric as a starting point, to find a perspective able to overcome the interpretations that, only too often, tend to reduce word play to a question of individual style. The different phases of this study and the conclusions should prove to be fruitful, not only for literary theory and translation theory, but also for the work of the translator. [Source: BITRA]