This work offers a survey of some translation methods and strategies by providing an overview of the state-of-the-art translation criticism. It also analyzes and discusses some extracts of an Italian translation of Under Milk Wood . Based on the idea that theory must be tied to practice to be of any real benefit, the pragmatic and the normative dimension of translation are indissolubly linked. A good theoretical back-ground plays a key-role in understanding the structures operating within a language. Since Dylan Thomas uses different registers and a wide range of expressive forms such as monologues, dialogues, songs, nursery-rhymes, and lullabies, a translator should be particularly accurate at reproducing all these features in order to preserve the integrity of the source text. Only through a logical combination of the levels of language, reference, cohesion and naturalness, the translation results as the product of a deep transposition of verbal subtlety, word-play, and rhythm of the prose which are distinctive features of Under Milk Wood .