Translation is communication that crosses boundaries between sign-systems whose symbols realize different syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic relations. Successful translation of a message replicates those functional states in the receiver that the translator-sender intends. The problem of translation is developed from within basic cybernetic and semiotic frameworks, outlining different aspects of the semiotic, and how these afford translations that (at least partially) preserve form, meaning, and/or intent. The translator must first extract these deep relations from the original message and then express them in the second sign system. The paper also outlines how semiotic linkages can be embodied in individual adaptive devices and brains and modified through experience. Through shared interpersonal cooperations and behavioral coordinations, mutual understandings can coevolve in social networks to produce common, public meanings. Internalized convergences of meanings between interacting sign-systems then (partially) obviate the need for explicit translations of messages sent between them.