This study analyses the general significance of translation in the literary life of an epoch, a country and a language, and engages in particular with the status of German lyric poetry in French literature in the first half of the 19th century. In the wider context of a study of the problem of translation, the author enquires into the poetical affinity and relative synchronicity of Germany and France, and points the way to areas which have not yet been sufficiently researched, such as the significance of translations and translators for the development of French poetry. She goes beyond traditional research approaches into influence and sees translation as the vehicle for the transfer of motifs or forms, or of changes in metre.