The aim of the present study is to discuss the question of how comprehension during translation differs from comprehension during monolingual reading. With this question in mind, a parallel is drawn between two alternating translation modes – the “horizontal” mode and the “vertical” mode (De Groot 1997) – and two stages of monolingual meaning processing uncovered by the cognitive neuroscience: the stage of semantic integration of lexical items and the stage of complex inferential processing. The article argues that the comprehension during translation is essentially a bilingual process, in the sense that it is constrained by the production needs. However, these constraints vary depending on whether the mode of translating is horizontal or vertical.