Abstract: Nonreferentiality is an important concept in semiotics. It is a kind of “extrasemantic use of language”, i.e. the signifier refers to the signified, and also refers to another or a series of related signifieds. It takes on some features of fuzziness. Based on nonreferentiality, this paper attempts a new approach to fuzziness in literary translation, arguing that (a) nonreferentiality is a thought-provoking concept for us to identify semantic traps in translation; (b) being faithful to the original often means betrayal of the original when translating nonreferential terms; and (c) a way out is to semantically fuzz up or generalize the nonreferential terms when caught in the dilemma or paradox.