This study proposes new readings of the works of Rose Ausländer designed to achieve a finer appreciation of the nature both of her poetry and of the matters addressed in it. Her verses are subjected to a process of refraction by reading them against the background of the linguistic, artistic, and ontological philosophies of Theodor W. Adorno (and Jean-François Lyotard), Peter Szondi, and Jacques Derrida, all of which took on sharper contours in the confrontation with Paul Celan. Ausländer's poetry thus stands revealed in its critical, deconstructivist stance and its refusal to succumb to the “authenticity” (Eigentlichkeit) of being or the temptations of facility: “Perplexed / we go on / in set phrases”.