This paper stands as an initial product of a more far-reaching project. The fortunes of translated Brazilian literature can be seen as related to – even though not exclusively conditioned by – the translational options made, as verified in a step by step comparison between source and target texts, in the light of the translation procedures applied. Of special interest is the treatment given to the linguistic markers of cultural specificity. Here, the preliminary results of one such comparison – as seen in the translations into French and into Norwegian – of short stories from Guimarães Rosa’s Sagarana, are presented, and further paths to be explored within the framework of this project are sketched.