The paper is focused on the study of literary translation as a type of rhetorical communication. The subject being analysed is that national conceptual sphere can be a reliable criterion for the authenticity of translation. The topic of the research is that national conceptual sphere regarded as a means of illocutionary influence and a source of differences in rhetorical conscience of the author of the original text as well as the translator and the addressee. A comparative analysis of Russian and Kazakh translations of Robert Burns’ ballad “John Barleycorn” is carried out. The comparison is based on the structure of rhetorical communication, national conceptual sphere, prosody parameters and genre features. The similarities and differences of the translations are specified. The similarities are shown in referential, strophic and genre proximity of the original and translations.