"Famigerado": um desafio para o tradutor

Abstract

The translation studies give us the possibility to answer some questions that come out when we read Guimarães Rosa’s books. As readers in our culture-language, Rosa’s book provokes us when we face his peculiar language, his different syntax and neologisms. Knowing the English language and culture a little, we ask ourselves how it would be possible to translate some challenges of Rosa’s language. The aim of this analysis is to study the translation of “Notorious” tale. It was translated by Barbara Shelby in 1968. As he fragmented the linearity of the sentences to suggest a rhythm or oral discontinuity, and created a unique punctuation, how was Rosa´s singularity translated into the English language? How was the translation of “Se sério, se era. Transiu-se-me” (p.15), for instance? Was his syntax noticeable in English or it got lost during the translation process?  In order to try to search the answer to these questions, we will arrogate to ourselves the definition of domestic and foreign translation suggested by Lawrence Venuti in his Translator´s Invisibility Theory.