The paper opens with a brief overview of translation studies in the past few decades in which the general failure to account for translation's semiotic core is pointed out. Some recent studies into the semiotics of translation are then presented to which the author responds by taking up selected translation issues in the light of Peirce's semiotics. The study provides a description of translation and translating, and a discussion of the vexed question of equivalence. An alternative general strategy is also presented in which inferential processes guide the translator into the interpretation of her source text and the search of solutions in her target text. The main contention is that equivalences are not given, but result from translators' inferential work over time.