Translation has probably become the dominant means of communication between European literatures and, in consequence, may be considered a privileged object of study for Comparative Literature. Yet the complex nature of translation has hardly been recognized as an interlingual as well as an intralingual and intersemiotic operation. Translation between literatures covers two possible directions and should be labelled accordingly as either ‘intranslation’ or ‘extranslation’. In order to understand the complex roles all these translation forms have played during the history of European literatures and of European interliterary contacts, an explanatory model is needed that links the study of literatures and of interliterary relations: according to systems theory, literatures are to be understood as complex networks of relations that regulate both their internal structure and relations with other systems. Examples of translation figures and of translation flows help to show how translations contribute to the establishment of macro-European literary networks.