This article focuses on teh treatment of culturally bound material in literary translations. The author states that albeit cultures differ from each other, the universal aspect of man's life is often in teh forefront as witnessed by George Lakoff's account of the way man organises his view of teh world. Also, there are ways of bridging - or avoiding -the cultural gap by omitting unnecessary new information, by borrowing new material illuminating the particular foreign culture and by using cultural equivalents. The author iullustrates this with examples.