An examination of literary translation from the standpoint of the relations of power playerd out in the international literary field enables one to no longer see it as a simple transfer from one language and culture to another. Once one posits an unequal distribution of literary and linguistic-literary capital among the fields of national literatures and among the so-called national languages, the phenomena of translation can be analysed in the same way as transfers of capital. Introducing translation into the twin logic of symbolic economics and internationalization gives on the means to show that translation cannot be reduced to a single function whose meaning would be everywhere and always the same. Instead, it is as though one wer dealing with translation 'transactions', whose meaning depended on the respective position of the three authorities that determine each translation: 1. the two languages, source and target; 2. the author; 3. the translator. It is therefore on condition that one determines in detail the direction in which the literary capital is transferred that one will be able to define the translation, either as a means of accumulating capital or as an official recognition.