In this paper, the author does not intend to take potshots at translators of literature, nor does he intend to engage in comparable activities often subsumed under the heading ‘translation criticism’. Rather, he would like to show how both criticism and translation are used as strategies for rewriting an author in such a way that he or she becomes acceptable to readers in another literature. Moreover, the author would like to point out that is through these rewritings that foreign writers become known – they have no other choice, nor do they, usually, have the power to influence the rewritings to which they are subjected. The text for this exercise is that of Heine’s Lyrisches Intermezzo of 1822-23, as printed in the Werke und Briefe in Zehn Bänden.