In this paper an approach for automated source-to-source translation from Cobol to Java is presented. The primary goal of this approach is to ensure that the generated code will be maintainable. In some cases this is achieved even by sacrificing complete functional equivalence of the generated code with the original program. We also intensively use encapsulation to hide away difficulties of language conversion process from the maintenance engineer. We discuss results of practical application of this approach on examples taken from the real-life programs.