The aim of this article is to illustrate the claim that whereas the style and potential effects on readers of any text, whether translated or not, can be helpfully subjected to stylistic analysis as traditionally understood, no claims about writer motivation can helpfully be made about a translated text without due regard to significant regularities in the relationships between it and its source text. In translational stylistics, this relationship is seen as central; indeed, it is through observation of its manifestations that many of the most interesting questions about writer motivation are raised in the context of translated text.