In this paper the author wants to draw a first sketch of a method the author is developing for determining the relationships between poetic target texts and their corresponding source texts. Before going into the methodological aspects of description (the development of a comparative method and of a descriptive apparatus), the author first aims to discuss the metatheoretical aspects of translation description as he sees it. Much of this is done in the form of a dialogue with the theories of Gideon Toury, whose works offer one of the most comprehensive discussions of translation description and of translation theory in general.