The recently announced “translational turn” in cultural studies has set up translation as a model for conducting inter- and trans-disciplinary cultural research and as the main analytical category for investigating the cross-cultural diffusion and transformation of art forms. Although attempts to broaden the concept of translation still have translation proper as their primary point of reference, they tend to overlook the role of the linguistic medium in shaping literary theories and in the writing of histories of literary studies. This paper argues for a more encompassing appreciation of the significance of translation proper in the historiography of literary studies, through a case study of the English language translation of Ireneusz Opacki’s Krzyżowanie się postaci gatunkowych jako wyznacznik ewolucji poezji (1963), published as Royal Genres (2000).