This contribution discusses the English versions of Derrida’s inventive French texts. Setting out from the findings of comparative discourse analysis, Lewis submits translation to a poststructuralist critique of representation. Translating involves a “double interpretation” whereby the source text is rewritten in the translating language. To illustrate his point, Lewis discusses how an early American translator of Derrida maintained immediate intelligibility through current English usage instead of trying to mimic the philosopher’s conceptually dense wordplay.