This paper focuses on the issues raised by the translation of idioms, amphibology, wordplay, onomatopoeia, neologisms and portmanteau words, in the perspective of pinpointing the specific challenges one meets when translating oral poetry, and keeping in mind the interconnection between orality and literacy as an essential element of a Black aesthetic. As it examines some pieces by American poets Quincy Troupe and Kamau Daa’ood in translation, it aims at bringing to light the specific problems raised by the interweaving of the visual and the aural as made particularly salient by figurative language. It argues that, in a literal and metaphorical meaning as well, collaboration is of the essence when translating figurative language. Drawing on Clive Scott’s idea that “the ‘work’, the outcome of an ongoing sequence of avant-textes remains, in some senses, hypothetical” and on Paul Valéry’s representation of the work of translation as “caus[ing] us in some way to try walking in the tracks left by an author; and not to fashion one text upon another, but from the latter to work back to the virtual moment of its formation”, it argues that, when translating figurative language in performance poetry, the translator may be viewed as an arranger who uses the source text as score, taking his turn in a continuum of performances both written and oral which ensure the survival of the poems.Read less <