8. Transcriação / Transcreation
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K. David Jackson
Abstract
The Brazilian concrete poets Haroldo de Campos (1929–2003) and Augusto de Campos (b. 1931) emphasize creative translation of a synchronic selection of world literature as an integral part of neovanguard poetics and criticism. “Transcriação/transcreation” was the term coined by HC to characterize a new approach to creative literary translation, launched in Brazil with their joint translations of many of the founders of contemporary poetics, Pound, Mallarmé, cummings, Mayakovsky, and Joyce. Departing from a linguistic approach to expressive language, HC applied “transcreation” theory to his translations of Chinese poetry, Japanese haiku, and the biblical book of Genesis, among others. The translators’ goal was phonetic, syntactical, and morphological equivalency, aided by the flexibility of the Brazilian Portuguese language. AC’s translations range from French Provençal poetry to cummings, while HC’s last published translation was a Greek/Portuguese bilingual edition of The Iliad. The theory of transcreation was first applied to a constructivist, linguistic current of twentieth-century vanguard poetics, and more broadly to a synchronic construction of tradition and linguistic analysis in many languages, literatures, and periods. The translations of the Brazilian Concrete poets thus added an essential and influential component to the concept and practice of world literature. Their work as translators made available in Portuguese a more complete and complex reading of poetics grounded in language than was available in many other major languages.
Abstract
The Brazilian concrete poets Haroldo de Campos (1929–2003) and Augusto de Campos (b. 1931) emphasize creative translation of a synchronic selection of world literature as an integral part of neovanguard poetics and criticism. “Transcriação/transcreation” was the term coined by HC to characterize a new approach to creative literary translation, launched in Brazil with their joint translations of many of the founders of contemporary poetics, Pound, Mallarmé, cummings, Mayakovsky, and Joyce. Departing from a linguistic approach to expressive language, HC applied “transcreation” theory to his translations of Chinese poetry, Japanese haiku, and the biblical book of Genesis, among others. The translators’ goal was phonetic, syntactical, and morphological equivalency, aided by the flexibility of the Brazilian Portuguese language. AC’s translations range from French Provençal poetry to cummings, while HC’s last published translation was a Greek/Portuguese bilingual edition of The Iliad. The theory of transcreation was first applied to a constructivist, linguistic current of twentieth-century vanguard poetics, and more broadly to a synchronic construction of tradition and linguistic analysis in many languages, literatures, and periods. The translations of the Brazilian Concrete poets thus added an essential and influential component to the concept and practice of world literature. Their work as translators made available in Portuguese a more complete and complex reading of poetics grounded in language than was available in many other major languages.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction. Between temples and templates 1
-
Part 1. Translation and reconciliation
- 1. Translation as reconciliation 17
- 2. Interpreting at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) 37
- 3. Translating and interpreting sign language 53
- 4. Translators in a global community 73
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Part 2. Translation and negotiation
- 5. The treason of translation? 89
- 6. The poetics of experience 107
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Part 3. Translation and the interpretation of texts
- 7. Translation and the rediscovery of the multinational Central European 127
- 8. Transcriação / Transcreation 139
- 9. Expression and translation of philosophy 161
- 10. The semantics of invention 169
- Contributors 191
- Index 195
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Preface vii
- Introduction. Between temples and templates 1
-
Part 1. Translation and reconciliation
- 1. Translation as reconciliation 17
- 2. Interpreting at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) 37
- 3. Translating and interpreting sign language 53
- 4. Translators in a global community 73
-
Part 2. Translation and negotiation
- 5. The treason of translation? 89
- 6. The poetics of experience 107
-
Part 3. Translation and the interpretation of texts
- 7. Translation and the rediscovery of the multinational Central European 127
- 8. Transcriação / Transcreation 139
- 9. Expression and translation of philosophy 161
- 10. The semantics of invention 169
- Contributors 191
- Index 195
