Texts are not created in a vacuum but are fundamentally influenced by the historical and social conditions out of which they originate. Embedded within them, they contain an array of cultural signifiers that are more or less rooted in that social context. Some texts are more firmly grounded than others in the conditions out of which they arose, giving evidence of a particular political agenda, public preference, fashion or ideological questionings of an era, while others appear to us to transcend their temporal and contextual borders through their ability to respond to the concerns of later generations. Because of this perceived universality they remain vital beyond the boundaries of the civilisation that created them. Regardless of their capacity to reach beyond their time and place, however, texts are representative of a cultural context and require familiarity with that context for the comprehension of the culturally determined, integrative functions. This is of particular relevance to translations as they represent fundamentally the move from one linguistic realm to another, and consequently the transfer from one cultural sphere to another. I differentiate between cultural and geographical sphere here. In multilingual territories texts can exist in multiple languages without having to cross any territorial boundaries. The defining context is, however, intimately linked to the language in which the text is written and therefore of necessity shifts once the text is rewritten within its new linguistic context despite the possible co-existence of both versions within the same location.