Writing and translating may be disparate terms to the extent that one is a monolingual practice involving a measure of originality and the other is a manifestly bilingual affair demanding absolute faithfulness. But as sociolinguists are the first to acknowledge, monolingualism is no more than contrived homogeneity and the real linguistic situation is always subject to infinite variation and variability, unbeknown to native speakers. This paper looks into the problem of translating and the writing of history as such vis-à-vis the marginal existence of a Hong Kong literature by its Chinese inhabitants writing in English. The author argues, following local scholar Ackbar Abbas, that the marginality of Hong Kong within Chinese culture and the marginality of its non-native English literature in particular have an unusual intensity that effectively ‘inscribe’" the cultural space of Hong Kong in the writing. The issues of minor literature, translation and history are explored in the discussion.