My essay aims at investigating the problems posed by intertextuality in literary translations, on the theoretical level (from the perspective of both literary theory and translation studies) as well as through the analysis of a specific case study: Hans Magnus Enzensberger’s and Hans Raimund’s German versions of two Franco Fortini’s highly intertextual poems, which are inextricably linked to – respectively – works of Umberto Saba and of Bertolt Brecht. As it becomes clear during the inquiry, processes of identification and rendering of intertextual references are also shaped by dynamics related to literary authorship. Therefore, the essay investigates on the one side the relationship of Enzensberger to Brecht as an authorial figure, and on the other side the role played by Brecht’s authorship on the relationship between Fortini and Enzensberger. That leads firstly to an analysis of Enzensberger’s early poetic production (from ‚verteidigung der wölfe‘ to ‚landessprache‘), and secondly to an exploration of phenomena of authorship within German ‚Nachkriegslyrik‘ as well as their European reception.