This article analyses translation scenes in seventeenth-century German literature using the example of texts by Johann Michael Moscherosch and Johann Valentin Andreae. The concept of the translation scene is loosely based on the concept of the writing scene established in literary studies. It shows that and how reflections on the purposes and limits of translation can be found in literary translation scenes. Moscherosch and Andreae present translation as a process that is prone to disruption, which is certainly suitable for bringing about linguistic understanding, but often leaves the understanding of the underlying problems untouched.