This paper uses the limerick as an example to discuss literature in the context of translation. The author sees literature as an example of a general phenomenon, encompassing many models of text types which are situated in and influenced by the cultural system in which they function. In this paper, Toury chooses to focus on the partly nonsensical, partly comic form of the limerick, a relatively value-free text type which, he claims, helps to avoid the overlay of ideology in the discussion of translation issues. The author also speculates about the relationship between the acceptability of features of the source-culture model in the recipient culture and their relative place in the hierarchy of features.