The paper deals with three translated texts which are fraught with mis-translations. The three texts in question, Baudelaire’s “Epilogue” of Le Spleen de Paris, and “Le Voyage” of Les Fleurs du Mal, and Yeats’ “On Being Asked for a War Poem,” are read in such a way that the respective subtexts of “social critique,” “patriotic discourse” and “political discourse” are unveiled. These readings show that in translating, what is often translated is translator’s “prejudices of perception” and “local concerns,” calling for an alternative understanding of the nature of translated text, translation behavior, and the discourse on translation.