Borges’s reflections on literary translation are developed in the light of Peirce’s sign theory – particularly his triad, symbol, icon and index – and Bakhtin’s artwork theory. Evoking Zeno’s paradox regarding Achilles and the tortoise, Borges maintains that a translation never catches up with the original chronotopically, but may surpass it in terms of artistic rendition. Understanding ‘fidelity’ as creativity, and not imitation, repetition, a literal copy in another language, the translating text must establish a relation of alterity with the translated text. Paradoxically, a good translation is at once similar and dissimilar. The greater the relation of dialogic alterity between the two texts, the greater the possibility of creating an artistic reinterpretation, being another sign interpretant in the unending semiosic chain of deferrals from one sign to the next, in which is included the ‘original’. In creative and interpretive translation iconicity prevails in the relation between translated and translating text.