Abstract
<jats:p>Purpose. This research aims to systematically examine the lingua-cultural challenges encountered in indirect translation, where a text is translated through an intermediate language rather than directly from source to target language. Methods. The study employs a comparative descriptive methodology analyzing 50 literary and non-literary texts translated through the English-Russian-Uzbek chain. The analytical framework integrates contrastive linguistic analysis, cultural reference identification, semantic shift tracking, and pragmatic meaning comparison across three translation stages. Results. The findings reveal five major problem categories: (1) cultural referent distortion increasing progressively through translation chains; (2) cumulative semantic shift accumulation producing significant meaning deviations; (3) idiomatic and metaphoric transformation reflecting intermediary language patterns; (4) stylistic incongruence through register shifts and neutralization; (5) pragmatic loss and misinterpretation of implicature, presupposition, and speech acts. Conclusion. Indirect translation poses unique multiplicative challenges requiring translators to possess multilayered cultural awareness, recognition of intermediary language distortions, and strategic compensation techniques. The research contributes to translation studies by providing systematic categorization of lingua-cultural problems and proposing evidence-based strategies for quality improvement in multilingual translation chains</jats:p>