To step into someone else’s shoes in order to try to understand what the other person is experimenting in similar situations but different cultures is the goal of intercultural studies. With this study, we intend to go further, by studying not only the persons from another culture, but exploring the translation of the feelings and emotions of the characters in classic Spanish literature, and then the feelings of the translators doing the work. The classic Spanish literature studied here is the most recently translated or retranslated into two languages of the Nordic countries, Finnish and Danish.

When discussing emotions and feelings, we focus on the sensations experimented by the translators themselves, as they are important cultural mediators. The key for transmitting feelings and emotions lies in their understanding and perception of the feelings and emotions of the literary characters.

Through a series of questionnaires and interviews with the translators we have identified passages that were particularly challenging for them because of the emotions and feelings represented, as well as what were their own feelings in the translation process. Then we proceeded to analyze the translation strategies involved.

Key words: literary translation – classic Spanish literature – interculturality - feelings - emotions