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Introduction Translation is commonly understood as the passage from one language into another. Roman Jakobson opens On Linguistic Aspects of Translation from a very different starting point. Before discussing bilingual dictionaries or lexical equivalence, he offers a striking definition of linguistic meaning itself: "the meaning of any linguistic sign is its translation into some further, alternative sign" (Jakobson, 1959, p. 232). Borrowed directly from Charles Sanders Peirce's theory of signs, this claim transforms the scope of the essay. Translation is no longer a specialized linguistic practice but the very process through which signs become intelligible. Read from this perspective, Jakobson's discussion of lexical equivalence, Benjamin Lee Whorf's linguistic relativity, and even the familiar expressions sunrise and sunset all serve a single philosophical purpose. They illustrate that understanding is inseparable from interpretation, and interpretation ...