Signos Literarios, vol. XV, no. 29, January-June, 2019, 8-29 Hopscotch: A NOVEL OF TRANSLATION, OR HOW TO CHAMPOLLIONIZE THE ROSETTA STONE OF LITERATURE LILIANA WEINBERG ORCID.ORG/0000-0002-7006-7812 Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Centro de Investigaciones sobre América Latina y el Caribe weinberg@unam.mx Abstract: Tis article refects on the central role of translation in the novel Hopscotch (1963) by Julio Cortázar, and reviews a series of examples of this key aspect. Tis text considers how the transit of terms and expressions from Rioplatense Spanish into French, as well as the efort to contextualize and translate certain habits, rituals, and words in the transition between these two cultural worlds, constitute some of the greatest keys to the novel. Many passages, chapters, and terms in Hopscotch conduct to secret spaces and zones of language and experience that are very difcult to translate. An aspect that, at the same time, reminds us of, not only the fact that Cortázar himself was the translator, but that he also refected on these topics and recommended anyone who began a writer’s career to start by learning how to be a translator. KEYWORDS: CORTÁZAR; NARRATIVE; LANGUAGE; WRITER; READER RECEPTION: 31/10/2018 ACCEPTANCE: 11/02/2019