The aim of this paper is to describe how functions of metaphors relate to translation strategiesin a translation of a popular scientific article from English to Swedish. The investigation isbased on a close reading of the source and target texts which identifies metaphors of fourdifferent functions: pedagogical, theory-constitutive, decorative and narrative. The methodfor metaphor identification is adapted from Merakchi and Rogers (2013) while the translationstrategies discussed have been borrowed from Toury (2012). These strategies reflect realtranslator behaviour and take into account source and target texts equally. The investigation starts with a quantitative summary of translation strategies which showsthat in the vast majority of cases metaphors exist simultaneously in the source and targettexts, whether it is as ―the same‖ or a ―different‖ metaphor. The qualitative analysis bringsforward that metaphors in general have a narrative function, sometimes in addition to adifferent function. It goes on to show that narrative themes are important to create links i)within the text, ii) to the scientific community and iii) within a wider cultural context, andthat this works for both source and target text independently.