The icon is operationally defined as a sign whose manipulation reveals, by direct observation of its intrinsic property, some information on its object. This definition represents a detrivialization of the concept of icon as a similar entity. Here we explore Haroldo de Campos' concept of "iconic translation", and we develop this concept in a new direction, based on an operational criterion that associates the icon to diagrams, iconic signs of relationship. It is a well-known argument that creative translation recreates isomorphic (or paramorphic) relations between different levels of description (or organization) of the translated sign. This idea is framed here by an operational concept of icon capable of revealing a definite form of a relationship. In the end, I exemplify my argument showing a case of translation of John Donne, by Augusto de Campos
translation; diagram; iconic calculation; Peirce