In this article, E.M. Beekman examines the translation job from a practical point of view. Beekman himself is a translator and has no theory of translation, but is well acquainted with the snares and pitfalls of rendering a Dutch text into American. He has some opinions, but doubts whether anyone will ever formulate an ultimate principle of translation that will explain its nature and method once and for all. To account for this point of view, the author tells us more about his own translation experience and compares his own techniques with common translation theories.