CLARICE, A TRADUTORA ENTRE MIL E UMA NOITES

Abstract

Beginning in 1967, Clarice Lispector wrote and published weekly chronicles in the Jornal do Brasil. Her activity as a chronicler was of great importance for her literary project, since the author of The Passion according to G.H. frequently used this métier to reflect on her role as writer, journalist, translator, mother, intellectual, as well as to deal with the constant obstacles experienced in the creative process. In this context, Clarice published, in a small piece of the newspaper’s "Section B", a translation of the short story "Historia de los dos que soñaron", initially attributed to Jorge Luis Borges, although the edition had not presented it as a translation. In this sense, the present article aims at analyzing that short version and its possible association to the writer's project, considering the fact that the translations signed by her often occupied the place of literary creation before the readers of the newspaper, who consequently hitched her writer and translator roles. It is worth emphasizing that rendering such small narrative evokes complex obstacles in the scope of translation, since the text attributed to the Argentine writer on the page of the newspaper is in fact his translation of night 351 of the One thousand and one nights, published in Historia universal de la infamia (1935). In this way, we aim to problematize, through the Translation Studies in its interface with Comparative Literature, the Brazilian writer’s approach when coming into contact with Oriental narratives, deducing if she was, perhaps, unconsciously biased by a Borgesan way of creation/translation.