This article attempts to identify possible strategies for translating non-lexicalised compound adjectives into French. When a poetic text such as The Wreck of the Deutschland by G.M. Hopkins distances itself lexically and syntactically from the existing forms of compound adjectives, translating into French—which generally involves unfolding and making explicit the English structure—demands a choice of interpretation and style. The analysis of this structure in the poem, and its three translations, shows how the translators, who include Pierre Leyris, innovate in the field of rhythm, sound, syntax and vocabulary, to produce a new text corresponding to the French linguistic and cultural universe.