The meaning. Literal words aren't the point of communication. There was a good blog the translators wrote about translating Pathologic, a metaphor-heavy Russia

The meaning. Literal words aren't the point of communication. There was a good blog the translators wrote about translating Pathologic, a metaphor-heavy Russian video game. It takes place in a town where the districts are named after body parts of a bull, but the names have double meanings related to the town's power structure as well and the dialogue is heavy with this kind of wordplay. They wrote a bit about the process of translating not just the words, but also the wordplay into English. Ultimately I don't believe this implied meaning can be perfectly conveyed (which is maybe why scholarly study of texts remains important?), but at least in sacred texts like the Bible you can insert footnotes to expand on what can't be directly conveyed in direct translation.