Either this ou aquilo: traduzindo a poesia infantil de Cecília Meireles para o inglês
Abstract
Telma Franco Diniz Abud (telmafranco@hotmail.com)
I'm an independent translator working with the language pair English/ Portuguese, and specializing in literary translation. I hold a Master's degree in Translation Studies with an emphasis on Poetry, and am enrolled in the PhD Program in Translation Studies of the University of São Paulo, Brazil.
Abstract
The aim of this study is to discuss the translations into English of a selection of poems from the classic Brazilian children’s book Ou isto ou aquilo, by Cecília Meireles, namely the poems “O cavalinho branco”, “A égua e a água”, “Enchente”, “Passarinho no sapé”, “Ou isto ou aquilo” and “A lua é do Raul”. To this end, the study begins with a biographical profile of Cecília Meireles, a discussion of her ideas on education and literature for children, and a contextualization of the book in question in relation to her other poetic works. Next, it discusses the principles and criteria of poetic translation practiced by Brazilian poet-translators Paulo Henriques Britto, Mário Laranjeira, Haroldo de Campos, Alípio Correia de Franca Neto and José Lira, among others. In the light of these principles and criteria, the selected source language poems are then analyzed, with an examination of their semantic, prosodic, rhythmic, and phonic features, with the aim of re-creating, in the target language, the poetic characteristics previously identified as being the most significant in the source language poems. The results are then commented on and discussed, with the aim of demonstrating, throughout the discussion, that some liberties in the re-creation of certain poems, particularly in the case of “Passarinho no sapé” and “A lua é do Raul”, were taken more due to sound structure, or phonetic aspects, than a sense of impossibility of semantic, cultural, or formal correspondence. Finally, this study includes, in Appendix, the translation into English by British poet-translator Sarah Rebecca Kersley of the poems “A chácara do Chico Bolacha”, “O menino azul”, “A pombinha da mata”, “O mosquito escreve”, “Para ir à Lua”, “O último andar”, “A bailarina”, “Ou isto ou aquilo” and “Pescaria”.
ISSN 1920-0323