Every text tries to establish a parallel between the translation development phases – from an initial literal attitude (word-for-word translation) to the most recent functional-communicative orientations – and the undoubtedly hard effort of all those that, after having devoted themselves to translation, aim to perform this professional activity. This paper aims to analyse the first contacts and experiences with ‘translation’ and their contrary or compromising degree – sometimes these contacts seem to suggest that translation is a mechanical operation consisting in the replacement of some elements in one language by other elements considered equivalent in the target language – but also accounts for the committed and persistent work to be developed until a stage is reached where, based upon the analysis and understanding of the (original) text, one can produce another text, in the target language, that performs, within the universe of target readers in this language and culture, a specific communicative function.