No matter what pains translators take to produce a target-language text "identical" to the source-language text, criticism and/or translation of an original literary work cannot be the same in different language communities. That translation may change potentialities in the textual experience is particularly obvious in literature with a strong cultural color, such as folkloristic material. Three examples from Danish and English texts illustrate differences at the textual level: in the first case, the order of presentation is altered; in the second case, specialist terminology is omitted; and in the third, one brief but crucial speech has been interpreted in a special way. The common denominator is that the linguistic middlemen have misinterpreted some factors which are organic to the work as a whole. These factors, as well as other linguistic, social, and religious differences reflected in languages, lead to changes in the textual potentialities, and hence differences in the receptions and interpretation of the text in different languages. Criticism based on texts in translation, therefore, applies primarily to the target-language versions and becomes part of the critical heritage, i.e., hypotheses about the readers' experiences, in the target-language culture. With the wider diffusion today of literature from many countries, an awareness of the foregoing considerations is a necessity for contemporary scholars and researchers in literature. (Thirteen references are attached.) (KEH)