Multitudinous heart: an analysis of drummond’s poetry into the english language

Abstract

In this essay, three poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade translated into English are analyzed. They were translated by Richard Zenith and published in New York in 2015, by Farrar, Straus and Giroux publisher into the collection Multitudinous heart: selected poems by Carlos Drummond de Andrade (2015). The purpose of this analysis is, recognizing the process as an intertextual phenomenon, to analyze how the translator solves problems of poetry translation, such as correspondence of rhythm and sounds and the semantic correspondence between linguistic systems as different as English and Portuguese as well as to understand the dialogue between the different works. In order to elaborate this reflection, in addition to the selected poems, previous translations by other translators are also used, in order to compare and contrast different approaches of the poetic text and its linguistic solutions. The theoretical reflection considers the discussions of Gérard Genette (2005) and Walter Benjamin (2008) about the translation as an intertextual practice and the translator role, of Haroldo Campos (2011) to problematize the literary translation, as well as Tania Carvalhal (2000) to think about the translation reception. From the analyzes, it was possible to understand singular characteristics in Zenith's translation project, which makes choices and finds translation solutions that had not yet appeared in previous translations of drummondian poetry. Thus, in Zenith it was found an update of Drummond's poetry in English, in a movement that seeks to dialogue with the reading public, as well as to preserve the rhythm and rhymes of Drummond poetry. Hypotheses are then traced and tendencies delimited in the analyzed poems in order to start the debate on this still recent translation of Drummond’s poems translated into the English language.