This paper sets out to show the ways that wordplay is elucidated by post-structuralism and to resolve the confusion concerning Derrida's approach to translatability, particularly in regard to wordplay. Because wordplay refers not to individual words or ideas, but to the systemic operation of a particular language, it comprises the self-referential signature of that language, which may at first seem untranslatable. Deconstruction would argue, however, that the self-reference of a signature can never be totally closed off from its linguistic system; therefore it is accessible to translation. Moreover, as a signature, wordplay is not only open to, but also requires the affirmative and contestatory countersignature of another language.