Translating always involves balancing the demands of different kinds of equivalence between languages: equivalence at different strata (contextual, semantic, lexicogrammatical, phonological), different ranks (e.g., in grammar, clause complex, clause, phrase/group, word) and different metafunctions (ideational, interpersonal, textual). These demands often conflict, and have to be reconciled by reference to the functional variety, or register, of the source language text and the need to accommodate to this in the target language. Two examples of Chinese-English translation serve to illustrate these issues, and to bring out some of the difficulties arising in the management of translation shift. Translating always involves balancing the demands of different kinds of equivalence between languages: equivalence at different strata (contextual, semantic, lexicogrammatical, phonological), different ranks (eg, in grammar, clause complex, clause, phrase / group, word) (ideational, interpersonal, textual). These demands often conflict, and have to be reconciled by reference to the functional variety, or register, of the source language text and the need to accommodate to this in the target language. Two examples of Chinese- English translation serve to illustrate these issues, and to bring out some of the difficulties arising in the management of translation shift.