The three essays in this volume were published together in French by Bayard, Paris in 2004 under the title Sur la traduction. ‘Translation as challenge and source of happiness’ was originally the text of an address given at the German Historical Institute of Paris on 15 April 1997; ‘The paradigm of translation’ (inaugural lecture at the Faculty of Protestant Theology, Paris, in October 1998) was first published in Esprit 853 (June 1999). ‘A “Passage” ’ first appeared in Sur la traduction.