This work seeks to examine traditional views on translation and translators, which have led to the construction of a melancholic professional identity, and to reflect on their roots. The inputs used in this analysis were a body of literature produced during the last thirty years, above all by translation theorists, and a selection of texts written by Brazilian translators and critics of translation over a decade (the 1990s), comprising: a) the metaphors used when discussing translation and translators; b) the criticisms made to denounce the marginal status and lack of prestige of translators and translation; and c) the theoretical and conceptual proposals that were developed, based on post-structuralism, in order to revert this negative situation. An interpretative analysis was produced, influenced by translation scholars aligned with post-structuralist ideas and based on the psychoanalytic concepts of melancholy and identity.