A nucleic acid-based translation system where the components of a nucleic acid multicrossover molecule serve as message, translation device and part of the translated product. One continuous strand of a nucleic acid multicrossover molecule acts as a message, which nucleic acid crossover strands, functioning together as a translation device, translate into nucleic acid product strands. Organic molecules appended to the backbone of the nucleic acid product strands can also be polymerized to form a polymer sequence of appended organic molecules.