If William Jones’ legal translations make him a founder of Anglo-Indian law, his literary translations (in particular Sacontala and certain odes by Pindar) give him the status of 'passeur' of otherness even exoticism, and opener of horizons. This multifaceted practice provides an opportunity to reflect on the history of the modes of transmission from one language and culture to another. The question is theorized by Jones himself in his two discourses on poetry in translation (especially Greek and Arabo-Persian), published in1772 and 1774, and form the matrix for the composition of his syncretic hymns mixing the Hindu and Christian religions.