The author of this paper believes that Henry Miller’s Tropics constitutes an example of the need to interpret a text before translating it. Therefore, it is the purpose of this paper to communicate the conclusions arrived at after comparing two Spanish versions of the Tropics the author thought quite representative: one by a Spaniard, Carlos Manzano, published in 1977 by Alfaguara (Madrid), and the other by a Mexican, Eduardo Escalona, published in 1961 by Cometa (Puebla).