Translation is mostly believed to take place between two different sides (languages, cultures, texts) that are separated by some kind of border. This binary conceptual geometry may be a defining feature of translational phenomena. Yet there are at least five ways in which non-binary analysis can attempt to reconceptualize the border: 1) as a set of translative signs marking isolated points of contact rather than continuous lines, 2) as a set of physical cross-cultural movements referred to by such signs, 3) as a set of spaces defined by relative economic efficiency with respect to the more diffuse intercultural activities of language-learning, 4) as a set of social and professional relations between translators as discourse-producers, and in summary 5) as a transitory communication strategy destined to give way to more stable forms of cross-cultural communication. On this view, translation becomes a fact of nomadic intercultures, pressed into the service of sedentary national cultures.