The shift in translation in translating literary works such as novels is important in order to create appropriateness of the meaning and perspective of the reader because the novel is an expressive and free type of reading. The purpose of this research is to find out translation shifts, especially unit shifts by Catford (1965). The research method used in this research is descriptive qualitative. The data studied is in the form of descriptive data, that is direct sentences in the novel ‘The Old Man and the Sea’ which is translated into the target language ‘Lelaki Tua dan Laut’, the data are presented in tables and then explanations given of the unit shifts that have occurred. Referring to the procedures and analysis carried out, shifts were found in units from morphemes to words, words to phrases, clauses to sentences, lower levels to higher levels and high levels to lower levels. The unit shift in translating the novel was carried out to fulfill the translation objectives, that is accuracy, equivalence and readability.