How can a person write in several languages at the same time? Would that be a form of translation? Or is it translation itself that needs to be redefined in this model of relations between languages? Like a palimpsest, a text written simultaneously in various languages presents a superposition of layers. Its archaeology requires the development of an appropriate toolbox, distinct from that of the obsessed stylistician, as well as from that of the linguist, which is focused on the system. This work endeavours to equip reflections on the discursive strategies of heterolingual literatures and their translations. The “postcolonial turn” that marks the social sciences invites to question well established concepts like those of the mother tongue, linguistic acquisition, equivalence and of fidelity. The detail analyses relates to four works: Die Niemandsrose by Paul Celan, Juan sin Tierra by Juan Goytisolo, Traduit de la Nuit by Jean-Joseph Rabearivelo and Sozaboy by Ken Saro-Wiwa and to their French, English, Spanish and German versions.