He wrote a translation of 'The Topless Bough'! (4)
I believe the answer is:
hugo
'he wrote a translation' is the definition.
The answer is a person as well as being a singular noun. This is suggested by the definition.
'of the topless bough' is the wordplay.
'of' indicates anagramming the letters (the answer comes from or 'of' the letters).
'the topless' means to remove the first letter.
'bough' with its initial letter removed is 'ough'.
'ough' with letters rearranged gives 'HUGO'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hugo that I've seen before include "Man's name; sci-fi award" , "Victor .... wrote ''Les Miserables''" , "French romantic writer, Victor, d. 1885" , "Victor, say" , "Jargon used by a particular group" .)