The testimony literature involves the reader in a peculiar way, because his responsibility of listening (Gagnebin) forces him to position himself, through a deep reading, within a witness-community (Insana) that guarantees the transmission of the narration. As the reader, the translator too. Taking into account narrative and stylistic aspects of the testimonial literature, it is possible to draw up a proposal that enriches the ethics and practice of its translation by identifying the listener / reader / translator as a witness. At the same time, useful interrogatives are sent to the translation in general, considered here, following Meschonnic, as a relation between two texts. The reflection is conducted from the analysis of translation problems and representation in Se questo è un uomo, the first book of Levi, an Auschwitz survivor and great writer of the twentieth century.