Недотыкомка is a symbol-word in the Russian literature of the Silver Age, meaning ubiquitous evil, according to the modernist world view, constituting the nature of existence. In this paper we demonstrate how the translation of this untranslatable word has influenced the perception of a literary work. We focus mainly on the poem Недотыкомка серая… (1905), the title of which in Wiktor Woroszylski’s translation is Niepochwytnica szara… (1971), while in the translation by Włodzimierz Słobodnik – Niedoruszajka szara… (1971) and in the novel Мелкий бес (1905), where this fulfils an important function (in René Śliwowski’s translation of 1973 – the name of this creature is Niedotkniątko). We examine what role the character of niedotykomka has in the discussed novels and we analyze the impact translation strategies have on the image of a fictional universe as well as a lyrical situation (i.e., the change of the feminine grammatical form in the character’s name into a grammatically neuter one).