The article deals with the problem of translation, providing some thoughts on how the books of the poet become the books of the translator, through the analysis of the French translation of Ovid’s Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto by Chantal Labre (Ovide: L’ exile et the salut, 1991). Ovid’s reflections on his own poetry become, in Labre’ translation, reflections on translating; Labre emphasizes the autobiographical character of Ovid’s exile poems. One cannot define L’ exile et le salut a literal translation, in the light of translator’s various interventions. Labre, however, provided a translation that is also faithful exactly because it reveals his status of translation: passages where it leaves literalism to introduce the word “libre”,“fidèle” or “traduire” are nods to remind us that we are not reading the original, but another book.
