This essay explores the intertextual links between Hans Jean Arp, Tristan Tzara and the Welsh poet John James (1939-2018). It focuses on the themes of portraiture, translation and agglomeration, closely linked to each other, and united notably by the trope of the zigzag. The final section, devoted to alterations, versions and inversions, examines aspects of Dada poetry that still fascinate us today. James not only inserts German words into his poems in the English language, but also incorporates modified fragments of some poems by Tzara and Arp into his 1973 collection Letters from Sarah, whose title is also a veiled tribute to Tzara.