This examination of the process of translation involved in the preparation of the first translation into Czech of Hugo von Hofmannsthal's address Literature as Spiritual Space of the Nation ("Das Schrifttum als geistiger Raum der Nation) enters ito a creative dialogue with the translation principles propounded by José Ortega y Gasset in his Miseria y Esplendor de la Traducción in order to indicate the difficulties of rendering a literary text faithfully in a different language. Devices such as the rhythmization of prose, phonetic instrumentation, idiosyncratic use of metaphors, stylistic variation in the use of domestic and foerign words, cryptocitations and literary allusions in this hermetic text clearly reflect the writer's characterization of German as an individualizing language (Individualsprache). Hofmannsthal's often misrepresented concept of a conservative Revolution is modified in the light of the echoes of the writer's own reading that are shown to be present in the text. Dealt with to a minor extent is the somewhat random reception of Hofmannsthal's work as an essayist in the Czech literary scene, a state of affairs that continues to the present day.