The paper addresses the problems of potentials and limitations of translation criticism and recalls several dominant strategies in contemporary translation studies. Starting from the dispute between the Polish translator of Scruton’s The Aesthetics of Music and its reviewers published in the journal Music (2024/3) the author of the text conducts an argument on the differences between unreflective translation and conscious and committed interpretation, touching on the issue of the translator’s responsibility for his work. The author compares the translator to the performer of a musical piece, who, when going on stage, runs the risk of misrepresenting the meaning of the score and every accidentally played false sound. The article also includes an analysis of the charges leveled against the translator by reviewers and attempts to polemicize both the translator’s and his critics’ arguments
