In the article a non-traditional approach of the semantic relations is presented in frames of which from the view of paradigmatics metaphorical and metonymical epithets are introduced. As a result of the analysis of metaphorical type of epithet it is claimed that semantic relations in its structure are preserved more often than within epithets with other kinds of semantic connection. Though in translation due to the loss of one of the components, expressive effect and imagery of metaphor are reduced or not rendered. Within translation of metonymical two-step epithet several consistent patterns are distinguished in the article, the most frequent of which is the explication of the metonymical meaning. Sometimes metonymic two-step epithet is regarded as a part of a more complex lexical-semantical and stylistic whole the translation of which is determined by its bounds leading to the grammatical decompression and semantic redistribution. The initial usual character of lexical structures of two-step epithet is also defined as one of the reasons of the reduction of expressiveness and emotional intensity in translation.