To read a translation is to read a prior reading resulting in a second text. Reception theory enlightens us indirectly but decisively on translation, in particular concerning the contract between the text - the source text, and the target text - and the reader. This contract, essentially generic in nature, plays a critical role as is shown in two contrary examples of infelicitous and felicitous translations. The faithfulness of the target text to the source text is thus seen to hinge on the axiological dimension of the act of reading, that is the sum total of judgements and counter-judgements fostered in the reader's mind, a seminal component of reading and thus of translation.