The aim of the present paper is to bring to light an important aspect related to translation dealing with proverbs. In particular we will focus on the numerous difficulties to find an equivalent for researchers and translators. We will pay attention to the work done by Julia Sevilla in her essaydated 1997. Furthermore we will study the Refranero Multilingüe which is an online multilingual list containing proverbs. The above mentioned list has been made by researchers following different scientific criteria; it has been useful to find equivalents in other languages. We will offer some useful guidelines to translate proverbs.