Criticism of the Auden canon largely ignores his many translations, which range from German to Old Norse and Swedish, and cover three literary genres (prose, drama, poetry). Auden himself always acknowledged the importance of translation in his own poetic career, seeing in it the inner workings of a particular language and language as a whole. Indeed, he translated for most of his literary life. The aim of this study is firstly to draw attention to these translations and secondly to analyse them in the light of Auden’s own translation theory, and contemporary theories, with particular attention to the concepts of Walter Benjamin and Jacques Derrida.