Given the disempowered status of translation as is shown in the fact that it is typically regarded or treated as secondary, derivative, and thus inferior, the necessity to further explore ways to empower translation needs to be recognized and reaffirmed. Only by viewing translation as a primary activity, can it acquire the capacity to function as fully as possible. Since translation is conditioned, constrained and motivated by disparate factors and forces, it is exposed to and affected by conflicts, tensions, and uncertainties, and for this reason, easily compromised. Translation is fundamentally weakened and devitalized by the possibility of its impossibility. It is variously compromised by ideology and poetics, patronage and power relations, gender and reception, functionality and inadequacy. Some translations are more possible than others but can still be poor or weak, as they may focus on one overriding concern at the expense of other functions or dimensions. We need to move away from the confinement of descriptive translation studies by reconsidering the nature of translation and the role of subjectivity in terms of how systemic interaction generates spaces to empower translation through the fullest possible array of resources available, or made available, to be able to translate the untranslatable.