The authors and translators Erich Arendt and Hans Magnus Enzensberger are two key figures in German literature after 1945, known especially for their appropriation of foreign literatures. They both contributed extensively to the reception of Modern Latin American and Spanish Poetry in East and West Germany by translating poets such as Pablo Neruda, César Vallejo and Rafael Alberti. This is the first study to explore the asymmetrically intertwined literary conditions of the two author-translator figures with regard to the ways in which engaging with a foreign text opens up a perspective on the author-translator’s own poetology.