This article discusses the question of poetry translation by focusing on two examples, analysing the circumstances surrounding the choice of texts, the ways in which they were translated and their supposed target readership. Both are examples of contemporary French poetry published in Argentina, one in 1947 and the other in 1974. The differences between the texts are also indicative of aesthetic shifts in the local literary scene between these two historical moments. Moreover, the status of the translators in question as original authors in the local context makes it possible to establish a correlation between certain aesthetic stances and approaches to translation. While the aim of the article is not to compare the two publications, it does point up significant differences which provide food for thought concerning the historical process of poetry as a genre in the 20th century in Argentina, as well as the considerable importance for that process of translations in general.