1 Translating Medea for the Brazilian Stage
This study addresses a recent experience of the
The groupâs name,
The final version of the Euripidean text was the result of a three-year collaborative project translating Medea, developed by the aforementioned post- graduate programs. This institutional and personal framework requires some preliminary considerations: since the translation was carried out in an academic environment, it is legitimate to admit that it had some pedagogical concerns. The basic objective of the exercise was most probably to deepen studentsâ knowledge of Greek literature and language, as well as of translation and performance techniques.2 However, the didactic intent clearly went much beyond the limits of the academic domain: it was continued backstage and culminated in multiple shows, in which the aim was to stimulate the direct participation of the audience.
This primary didactic purpose is also reflected in the general design of the volume
In the âPrefaceâ to the written version, Tereza Barbosa, who coordinated the translation, synthesizes the project thus:5 âWith the research done, we have, finally, the satisfaction of offering our readers what we call a âBrazilian functional and scenic collective translationââ. The characterization of the translation with these four adjectives (Brazilian, functional, scenic and collective) is certainly no mere coincidence, since it proclaims certain programmatic objectives that merit further thoughts.
The translation is, first and foremost, âBrazilianâ, obviously because it was made by a team from Brazil and in Brazil, for a Brazilian audience, and in accordance with Brazilian Portuguese. On the other hand, the translation proudly presents itself as a âcollectiveâ enterprise: first, because it is not the work of a single translator, but rather brings together contributions from the various teachers and students involved. During the translation process, the participants were organized in pairs â constituted, whenever possible, by a female and a male element, with the aim of obtaining an âandrogynous and individualized speech for each characterâ.6 This first stage was followed by another, in which the evolving text âwas submitted to the leading actress Andréia Garavello, also a Greek-language reader, for a first evaluation, and, from there, the whole process began once again: the translators listened to their texts in the mouths of other people and, with surprise â sometimes happy and sometimes angry â, they started to make the necessary adjustments for the staging, in collaboration with the actressâ.7 It was only after these preliminary phases of progressive cleansing that the translated text was delivered to professional actors, in order to be finally tested before the public.8 The last stage included going through successive filters, so that the confrontation with a performative orality would stabilize the written form: â(â¦) before being fixed on paper, the text was tested in parks and squares of the periphery of Belo Horizonte, always before a heterogeneous public, which was, according to some, unprepared for erudite texts; then in faculties and universities, from the UFMG to those hidden in the remotest places of Minas Geraisâ.9
The motivation for this laboratory experiment came from the awareness that Brazilian translations of Greek theatre are for the most part envisioned as written texts, intended to be read by individual readers, and that they do not work well when transposed to the public space of the stage. Also, they tend to be produced by a single translator (usually a philologist), and hence they completely lack the collective dimension that marked Greek drama in its original context. Therefore, the intent of
In order to reconstitute what is proper of tragedy, in Trupersaâs Medea the figure of a single translator, who is alone in conveying the ancient poet to his audience and in deciding the forms of porosity that must lead a specific text to its translated version, was replaced by a college of translators who explore the matrix of a well-known story by widening the spectrum of its reception and its interpretive possibilities through a kind of âconvergence of multiple sensitivitiesâ. Therefore, instead of something close to an individualized philosophical exercise, what one has at the end of the process is the result of a plural and, in a certain sense, cathartic experience, which, by anticipation, imprints in the new text the effects that it is expected to produce on the stage. And in the case of this new and innovative company, the translation project has indeed moved beyond the written page and gained a stage, and the stage is, in this sense, the space where the virtues of a (re)written text are verified.
The first goal of this âcollectiveâ enterprise was to restore the efficiency of ancient drama and test it, in its new, reshaped form, before a modern audience. In fact, the whole process was conceived with a view to involving the community as much as possible: rehearsals took place in a space shared by young people who sometimes had problems with authorities, and preliminary performances were presented in open spaces of remote and forgotten regions of Minas Gerais. But most important of all, the very conception of the translation and of the staging processes was intended as a manifestation of intensive collective work.
âFunctionalâ is the third adjective used by the project director to characterize the translation. We believe that Barbosa had in mind the functionalist theoretical trends of translation, launched by the Heidelberg School in the late 1970s, in Germany. In fact, the translation was conceived of and carried out according to a functionalist perspective, that is, in full awareness of the function that
Thus understood, the
To sum it up, I believe that the crisis of tragedy in the Brazilian reality depends on the weight of European tradition and the shyness that makes us confine translation to meaning alone, producing academic texts that remain on the shelf or that wait to be reinvented by the artists on the stage.
This remark clearly expresses the aim of discontinuing translation practices that, because they are reverent towards the European legacy, are incapable of creatively adapting to the new context, ultimately condemning the new text to a vegetative existence in a cultural limbus.
2 Classical Theatre: The âPoliticalâ Experiment
In the polis system, the involvement of the individual citizen in tasks of collective impact extended to all domains of action, involving religious, political, military, financial or even recreational matters. Therefore, the committed and conscientious exercise of citizenship required from each citizen a direct involvement in the interests of the city, which represented a privilege vis-Ã -vis all those who were excluded, to a greater or lesser extent, from the full use of that status. On the other hand, it was also an obligation from which some might feel the temptation to flee, in order to avoid, for example, the risk of participating in military campaigns or of placing personal resources at the service of common initiatives. This natural expectation of involvement in the activities of the polis is evident in the very origin of the most common term to designate the status of a âcitizenâ â polites â, precisely because of the close connection it presupposes with the concept of the city-state. This does not necessarily imply that a citizen should not take care of his private interests (ta idia), since that was also a prerogative to which a polites was naturally entitled. Moreover, the sources often show that the notions of polites and of idiotes (as a âprivate citizenâ) can coexist in a relatively peaceful way and even be taken as near-synonyms when designating ordinary citizens, as a central âatom of the civic-bodyâ, whose aggregation into a larger group generates a collectivity (to koinon, to demosion) or simply a polis.14
The theatrical phenomenon stands out as a living force that intensely reflects the way the spheres of the polites and of the idiotes intersect and interpellate each other, closely representing the tensions and challenges to which the polis was subjected, confronting its members with the major problems of the moment, through the metaphorical plan of the heroic past of tragedy or through the inquiring utopia of comedy. This is, in fact, an indelible mark of the experience of Greek drama as regards tragedy and old comedy: their âpoliticalâ nature, that is, the living and committed relationship with the reality of the Athenian democratic polis, of which it is simultaneously a reflection, an apology and a critical examination. It is therefore legitimate to expect that, while keeping in mind the timeless reality of the dramatic universe embodied in each play, which is valid on its own terms, the historical circumstances surrounding the creation and representation of Greek theatre in its original context of production may have carried some weight in the way the works were perceived by their Athenian spectators. This is what may have happened, for example, with the Oresteia of Aeschylus and the reforms of Ephialtes, which reduced the powers of the council of the Areopagus, or with Euripidesâ Medea and Ion, and Periclesâ law on citizenship, which served to limit access to the status of citizen.15
In global terms, all these different elements contribute to the understanding of the essence of what was being put on stage: the experience of life in democracy. Aristophanesâ comedy shows this clearly, for example, not only in the intensity with which it challenges the political figures of the moment, but also in the way it seeks to find (either in the realm of utopia or in the field of private initiative) solutions to a fratricidal and ruinous conflict such as the Peloponnesian War, in the last quarter of the fifth century. This is also illustrated by tragedy, as noted above with respect to Oresteia or to Medea and Ion, even though the subject of the play seems to refer only to a mythical or protohistorical past, since myth has precisely the undeniable advantage of stimulating a critical reflection on present problems through an effect of personal and chronological detachment.
As was argued in the first section of this chapter, one of the main concerns of
3 The Portuguese Text of ΤRUÎ Î RSÎ âs Medea
In the previous section, an attempt was made to evoke briefly what could perhaps be called (even if a bit loosely) the âtrack recordâ of the polis system in ancient drama, as a preliminary step to prepare the ground for the approach to
In fact, what we have as translations, though of excellent academic and even artistic quality, requires delicate, slow, careful and dedicated reading. Their approach is almost exclusively linguistic. These are texts to be appreciated in solitude and no longer in the midst of many, in a stadium or in a large open theatre like those that may be seen in ruins in Greece.
But in doing this, the group also experienced the intense and exciting feeling of promoting a discrete revolution, in order to make Greek tragedy more democratic and more permeated by Brazilian sensibility, without overtly questioning the philological approach. This goal is declared in programmatic texts, which shall be analysed in more detail below, although it can be immediately detected in several seminal options that contribute to the same prospective approach. The Brazilian flavour can be perceived in the name adopted by the group â
The literary quality of the translation produced is probably a more important question for those who can read Portuguese than for those who are more interested in the theoretical approach adopted (and the kind of reception stance that motivates it). Even if the latter aspect justifies this discussion, or, at least, most of it, it is useful to transcribe (and comment on) some examples concerning the translation. The text is very readable and generally quite refreshing. As would be expected, taking into account the producers of this version, the Euripidean original constituted the basis of their work, and as the coordinator of the Portuguese translation explains, the collective translators were very aware of formal aspects:18
Yes; the text was translated directly from the Greek and became accessible to all. For this, we followed closely all of Euripidesâ tracks; we used the same linguistic devices, metaphors, hyperboles, and chiasmi, we kept all its precious features in order to offer them to all, in Portuguese.
In the transposition of the text into Portuguese no scenes were cut and no character was eliminated: the text was translated in its entirety, respecting all the speeches and interventions of all the characters. As an indication of its close proximity to the Greek original and of its familiarity with the philological tradition, no stage directions were introduced, and furthermore, those lines that have been considered spurious interpolations by textual criticism were translated in square brackets (e.g. 41, 246, 262, 304â5, and passim). These two decisions show a close respect for the philological tradition.
Confirming the words of Tereza Barbosa, it can be said that the collective translators were effectively committed to keeping many of the rhetorical features of the original. This is the case with such figures of speech as metaphor and metonymy, which were generally preserved. Some examples are: âpudera o casco da nau Argos nunca ter batido asas pra terraâ (âwould that the hull of the Argos had never have flown to the landâ, 1:
In terms of the celebrated alternative expressed by Friedrich Schleiermacher â âEither the translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader towards him; or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the author towards himâ19 â, if we were to ask ourselves about the path taken by
We translate for the theater, we stage and we want to stage Medeia (â¦) in the most needy regions of the country, we want to speak to all the Brazilian people.
Starting from the assumption that tragic myths have a timeless human dimension, the groupâs intent was to create a play that, generating both empathy and distance, allowed for an effect of catharsis, a purging of the passions. To achieve this purpose, the collective opted for various processes of drawing closer to the new spectators â in accordance with a strategy worth illustrating with some examples.
Perhaps the most conspicuous resource for generating empathy with the new public is the creation of intertextual relations between the Euripidean text and elements of autochthonous culture, both from high-culture texts and from the Brazilian oral, music and popular heritage. As the project mentor writes:21 âIntertextuality, clearly embedded in the translation of lines 882â883, gives the listener a sense of comfort. He simultaneously listens to the place of Brazilianness (Brasilidade) and to the place of the strangerâ. The translation of the Euripidean passage here highlighted by Tereza Barbosa is permeated with famous lines by the poet Vinicius de Moraes as well as by the music of the no less celebrated Tom Jobim â as will be discussed later.22 But at other times, intertextual relations recover lines of âbeloved poetsâ (âpoetas queridosâ) like Mário Quintana,23 or even carnival marches, easily recognized by everybody.24
A structural strategy for getting the text closer to its new listeners / readers respects the lexical selection and the syntax, seeking a style more capable of engaging their attention. Lexical units and expressions tend not to lie outside the experiences and the linguistic habits of the average Brazilian, often using an informal or colloquial contemporary register in: âJasão deita e rola / na cama realâ (âJason lies down and rolls / on the royal bedâ, 17:
The whole style is more emotional. This is made rather patent by the use of interjections, which are quite varied, with some of them being introduced in the target text: âMas tu, ó, ainda não é hora da patroa saber / disto, hã?â (âBut you, oh, itâs not time for the mistress to know / this yet, huh?â, 80â1:
A curious decision was to translate
This sense of emotional heightening and naturalization of the speeches is further reinforced by the use of punctuation, which is in general more emphatic and expressive than in the source text. In the following example, the suspension generated by the ellipsis, the exclamatory tone marked by the final exclamation point and even the hyperbaton all contribute to this effect: âde amor ferida no peito ⦠por Jasão!â (âof love hurt in the heart ⦠by Jasonâ, 8:
The example just analysed is significant in yet another respect. All the rhetorical devices mentioned tend to express a sympathetic movement towards the woman, who is seen as a victim of love. A similar effect can be found in lines 31â3, although in this case it is conveyed by other resources: âVez em quando vira pescoço branquinho e / prâela mesma, lastima o pai querido / e a terra e a casa, coisas que, traindo, largou / com um homem que agora a desonrouâ. (our emphasis) (âNow and then she turns her little white neck and, / to herself, weeps for her beloved father / and the land and the house, things which, through her betrayal, she abandoned / with a man who has now dishonoured herâ,
Diminutives, which are so widely used and have such a great expressive potential in Portuguese, are also introduced at other points, for example, as a vehicle of Medeaâs irony when she forges her plans for revenge: âUma: lumino a casa dos noivinhos com o fogoâ (our emphasis) (âFirst: Iâll light up the house of the pretty young newlyweds with fireâ, 378:
Here as generally throughout the text, the result is, we believe, an invitation to empathize with Medea, while there is also some emphasis on the accusation of the betraying husband. Medea appears in a less condemnatory light: whereas, in the above mentioned translation by Rocha-Pereira,29 Creon says of Medea: âMotivos de temor, há-os de sobra. Tu és por natureza astuta e sabedora de muitos artifÃciosâ (âMotives for fear, there are plenty of them. You are by nature cunning and knowledgeable about many artificesâ, 284â5:
There is indeed a general tendency to emphasize Medeaâs dimension as a victim. The following example atones her guilt for her brotherâs death and for the fact that she had abandoned land and family of her own free will: âà pai, ôà pátria, que me expulsastes pela vergonha / de ter matado meu irmão!â (âO father, oO homeland, who have cast me out for the shame / of having slain my brother!â, 166â7:
Moreover, in our reading of this translation, the Brazilian Medea appears as a more natural being, a more earthy character in which the dimension of being a âcreatureâ gains greater expressiveness. Thus she âbellowsâ (âEu ouvi um berro / da desgraçada colcaâ; âI heard her bellow, / the wretched Colchianâ; 131â2:
The impression that
A movement towards the textâs new recipients is also very clear in the forms of address. Thus, a popular oral register, for example, prevails in the conversations between the Pedagogue and the Nurse: (e.g. âà prata velha da casaâ; âO, you old piece of furniture!â (49:
As follows from some of the above-mentioned examples, the âmanipulationâ of the text36 points in the direction of a general tonality that may be perceived as feminist. Corroborating this tendency, in her introductory notes, Tereza Barbosa explains that the Erinyes lose their female status, being delineated as âdisturbingly asexual beingsâ (âseres perturbadoramente assexuadosâ).37 Received by critics with some disappointment and perceived by Hellenists as a deviation from the classical tradition, change was nevertheless intended by the group as libertarian.
Contrariwise, the literal translation of the supplicatory formula âpelo teu queixoâ [âby your chinâ], as well as the maintenance of the word âfÃgadoâ [âliverâ] signifying the centre of human emotions, go against the general principle of naturalization â âPelo teu queixo, não faças mistério pra tua companheira de / servidãoâ (â By your chin, do not keep it a mystery to your partner / of servitudeâ, 65:
In broad terms, it may be said that, without completely abandoning a learned style, particularly in its use of archaic Portuguese terms, some rare words, and rhetorical devices characteristic of a higher style, such as the hyperbaton, this version of the Euripidean Medea essentially resorts to oral and everyday contemporary language.
4 Dionysiac Flavour and âBrasilidadeâ
As it becomes clear from our analysis of
In fact, the concept of Brasilidade is particularly evident and provides the motivation behind the presence of allusions to compositions by famous artists like Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes, to poets such as Mário Quintana, or even to the lyrics of celebrated carnival songs, which are, as indicated above, discretely combined with Euripidesâ lines. As Barbosa39 pertinently emphasizes, this process of using intertextuality in translation gives the audience a feeling of comfort, through the recognition of Brasilidade, while simultaneously making the spectators more willing to approach a universe with which they are less well acquainted. It corresponds to an advanced stage of the âmanipulation processâ that will ultimately lead to the intended fusion of familiarity and strangeness, of identity and otherness.
Let us now listen to Tereza Barbosaâs words describing the tumultuous experience of transferring the written text to the stage:40
This was the most critical moment: the occasion to check the stage quality for each line. So many words were heavy; they sounded terrible, and crawled over the floor! So many changes were required by the stage! So many disputes among us all! Translation actors and stage actors were all seeking their own stardom. You had never heard the word âmineâ so many times! And yet, nothing sounded as it was supposed to have been translated. Scared, we suffered, we loved and we hated one another. From the intrinsically collective perspective of the religious, social and political ritual dedicated to the god Dionysus, the act of leading the actors- translators and stage actors from a personalist culture like ours to the joint translation exercise was a gesture of cruelty, of pure omophagia. We had to intensify the role/function of the translation director, who from then on no longer acted as a regent but rather as a cruel priest in the practice of a sacrifice.
This interesting passage vividly depicts a very stimulating connection with ancient drama and its reception in modern times by describing the way the group of translators â who could be seen, and really saw themselves, as true followers of Dionysus (thiasotai) â and the group of professional actors (technitai) became involved in an agon with each other, while claiming their respective right to a closer relation with the final text, which is here equivalent to the poet himself or even to the god who inspired him in the first place. The very act of poetic creation is metaphorically brought before the eyes of both sides. All felt intensely (dis)united by the same dramatic experience of sparagmos: the internal distortions/bifurcation of each personâs individuality as a preliminary ritual necessary for the final initiation into a transversal collectivity. In other words: they were experiencing the ultimate stages of the mania-process that would finally transpose them into âa multiple, mixed, and huge organismâ41 engendered during the translation and staging phases. This collective organism was constituted first by the whole group, but soon it would also embrace the different audiences that attended the performance in the poor neighbourhoods of Belo Horizonte and elsewhere.42
As Tereza Barbosa aptly says when defining the essence of this theatrical experiment, sparagmos is âthe mark of the Ancient in our dilacerated cultureâ,43 an expression of the same Brasilidade that transforms extreme diversity into a palpable collective identity, where laughter and music festively meet during the massive cathartic experience of Carnival. That is why it is so meaningful that
5 Concluding Remarks
While evoking the legal and political horizon that served as a reference for the Greek theatre, it is important to emphasise that this manifestation of the vital energy of the polis should not be confused with the mere artistic expression of a possible political ideology. This would be doubly mistaken: first, because it would suggest that Greek theatre was at the service of a specific ideological propaganda; and second, it would follow that the comprehensiveness of the powerful phenomenon of Greek drama was being reduced to a circumstantial outgrowth of political agendas. The traits of such a propagandist ideology are by no means on disply (even in old comedy, which, by the very nature of the genre, has a more direct relationship with the political reality of the moment); and Greek theatre would never have attained such transhistorical and global significance were it simply at the service of one particular regime or ruler. The political dimension of Greek drama must, on the contrary, be understood as an expression of the involvement of the individual in the interests and affairs of the collective, of the polis, without ignoring the tensions arising from its evolution.
However, despite its more ephemeral traces, the original performative context should not be neglected either, since it contains information which, when considered in due proportion, may also provide interesting interpretative clues. But the opposite operation requires a similar effort: the transfer of an ancient text to a modern reader and to a modern stage, taking into consideration the different audiences that it may reach and the different levels of reading that it is expected to stimulate.
An analysis of
We wish to thank Tereza VirgÃnia Ribeiro Barbosa and Andreia Garavello for the most valuable information that they provided respecting the work of
Barbosa (2013) 21.
Barbosa (2013) 40â153.
Opinions on the publication of translations in bilingual editions are not unanimous. With some humour, Dominique Grandmont, for example, refers to them as âan invitation to mental strabismusâ: âThis is where the bilingual edition (â¦) seems to me quite contradictory to the existence of the translation. (â¦) Even if we knew all the languages, at the moment of reading, we would use only one (â¦). Why then this invitation to mental strabismus, if the plurality of senses can only manifest itself within the same text?â The quotation is a translation of the Portuguese edition of Grandmont (2013) 68. On the other hand, experienced translators, like Paulo Quintela, understand this principle as a sign of humility and an express confession of insufficiency, whether of the very translator or of aspects of the translation, enabling the readers with the means to form their own judgment. For this translator, one of the possible effects of the translated texts is to stimulate in readers the desire to read the primitive text: âPor isso eu, ultimamente, faço sempre imprimir os originais em face das versões portuguesas. E esta prática, ao mesmo tempo que oferece certas vantagens pedagógicas, é implÃcito reconhecimento de insuficiência e de radical frustraçãoâ. Quintela (1999) 644 (For this reason, I have lately printed the originals facing the Portuguese versions. And this practice, while offering certain pedagogical advantages, is an implicit recognition of insufficiency and of radical frustration).
Barbosa (2013) 13: âCom a pesquisa realizada, temos, enfim, a satisfação de oferecer para os leitores o que chamamos de âtradução brasileira coletiva funcional e cênicaââ.
Barbosa (2013) 21: âuma fala andrógina e individualizada para cada personagemâ.
Barbosa (2013) 33: âfoi submetido à atriz regente Andréia Garavello, também leitora de lÃngua grega, para uma primeira avaliação e, a partir daÃ, recomeçou todo o processo: tradutores ouviam seus textos pela boca de outrem e com surpresa â ora felizes ora enfurecidos â faziam eles mesmos, conjuntamente com a atriz, os ajustes necessários para a encenaçãoâ.
Given the specificity of the theatrical performance, always in close connection with a very concrete context, and subject to different conditions, such as the group of actors and the available spaces and technical means, the target audience and its reception horizon, its knowledge, values and linguistic uses, the intention of the performance, the stage of historical development of the language, etc, the intervention of directors and actors in the translation of the text is not an uncommon practice. See, for example, the case of the translation of a play by Peter Turrini for the Ãvora Group by Maria Helena Simões, who, after having produced a first Portuguese version, participated in successive rehearsals during which the members of the theatre group suggested and introduced some changes, with her agreement and collaboration. This often affects particularly the domain of colloquial expressions, insults, slang, interpellations, and allusions. See Hörster (1999â2000).
Barbosa (2013) 15: â(â¦) o texto, antes de se fixar no papel, foi testado em parques e praças da periferia de Belo Horizonte sempre com público heterogêneo e, segundo alguns, despreparado para textos eruditos; depois em faculdades e universidades, desde a UFMG até aquelas embrenhadas nos mais remotos lugares de Minas Geraisâ.
Flores-Júnior (2013) 10â1: âNo intuito de reconstituir o próprio da tragédia, a Medeia da Trupersa substituiu a figura de um único tradutor que sozinho comunica o poeta antigo com o seu público e que sozinho decide as formas da porosidade que devem conduzir um texto determinado à sua versão traduzida, por um colégio de tradutores que explora a matriz de uma história bem conhecida alargando o espectro de sua recepção e de suas possibilidades interpretativas através de uma espécie de âconvergência de sensibilidades múltiplasâ. Logo, no lugar de algo próximo de um exercÃcio filosófico individualizado, o que se tem no fim do processo é o resultado de uma experiência plural e, em certo sentido, catártica, que por antecipação imprime no novo texto os efeitos que ele deverá produzir em cena. E, de fato, no caso dessa nova e inovadora companhia o projeto da tradução saiu do papel e ganhou cena, e a cena é, nesse sentido, o espaço de verificação das virtudes do texto (re)escritoâ.
This current, commonly known as âFunctionalismâ and initially championed by Katharina Reiss and Hans J. Vermeer, is now widely accepted and practically unchallenged. One of the most striking names in this field is that of Christiane Nord, who was also initially linked to the well-known Heidelberg School. With a clearly practical and pedagogical intention, Nord sets out a series of parameters to be taken into account when translating any text, which, together, circumscribe two different communicative situations: firstly, the one in which the translated text will be received, followed by the one to which the source text belonged. At first, a series of six important extratextual factors must be traced: prospectively, with regard to the communicative situation of its reception, retrospectively, respecting the source situation. These are: the sender, the receiver, the time and place of publication (important, for example, for the translation of time and place deictics), the publication channel or the reason that triggered the act of translation. Only then does the analysis of intratextual factors start: lexicon, syntax, rhythm, in addition to specific themes and contents, structure and non-verbal resources. From the interaction of all these vectors comes the answer to the key question concerning the function of what has been transferred â that is, the translatum, or translated text â in its new framework, and all translation decisions depend on that function. See Nord (1988, 1991, 2011a, 2011b); Hörster (1999).
In a performance, signs of various semiotic systems come into action, which Tadeusz Kowzan systematized as follows: âThe first of these is the spoken text, for which there may or may not be a written script, the second is bodily expression, the third is the actorâs external looks, gestures etc, the fourth is the playing space with props, lighting etc and the fifth is the non-spoken soundâ. (apud Bassnett (1998) 99).
Barbosa (2014) 88: âEnfim, cremos que a crise da tragédia na realidade brasileira passa pelo peso da tradição europeia e pela timidez que nos obriga a limitar a tradução somente pelo significado, levando-nos a textos acadêmicos que permanecem na estante ou que esperam ser reinventados pelos artistas do palcoâ.
The expression âatom of the citizen-bodyâ is taken from Rubinstein (1998) 127, who also provides (141â3) a list of the sources from the Attic orators which explore the contraposition between idiotes and polis or collectivity, although not necessarily in a negative way.
For examples of this kind of legal/political approach, see Leão (2010), for the Oresteia; Leão (2011), for the Medea; and Leão (2012), for the Ion. For a set of studies centred on the analysis of the legal horizon of Greek theatre, see the volume coordinated by Harris, Leão & Rhodes (2010). See also Fialho (2010), who analyses the contexts of ritual affirmation of citizenship and Greek identity along with the awareness of âothernessâ, a dynamic that theatre also clearly explores and an operative concept in
Barbosa (2013) 14: âDe fato, o que temos traduzido, embora de excelente qualidade acadêmica e mesmo artÃstica, exige leitura delicada, lenta, cuidadosa e dedicada. Seu enfoque é quase exclusivamente linguÃstico. São textos para se apreciar na solidão e não mais no meio de muitos, em um estádio ou em um grande teatro aberto como aqueles que se veem em ruÃnas na Gréciaâ.
Barbosa (2013).
Barbosa (2013) 15: âSim; o texto foi traduzido diretamente do grego e tornou-se acessÃvel para todos. Para isso seguimos, de perto, todas as peugadas de EurÃpides; usamos as mesmas roupagens, metáforas, hipérboles, quiasmos, enfim, guardamos suas preciosidades para oferecê-las a todos, em portuguêsâ.
Schleiermacher (ed. by Justo) (2003) 60: âEntweder der Ãbersetzer läÃt den Schriftsteller möglichst in Ruhe, und bewegt den Leser ihm entgegen; oder er läÃt den Leser möglichst in Ruhe, und bewegt den Schriftsteller ihm entgegenâ.
Barbosa (2013) 15: âTraduzimos para o teatro, encenamos e queremos encenar Medeia (â¦) nas regiões mais carentes do paÃs, queremos falar para todas as gentes brasileirasâ.
Barbosa (2013) 16: âA intertextualidade, claramente costurada na tradução dos versos 882â883, provoca no ouvinte uma sensação de conforto. Ele escuta o lugar da brasilidade e o lugar do estranho ao mesmo tempoâ.
Musician Tom Jobim (Rio de Janeiro, 1927, New York, 1994) is the greatest representative of Brazilian popular songs and one of the creators of the bossa nova movement; together with poet Vinicius de Moraes (Rio de Janeiro, 1913â1980), he composed the universally known hit âGarota de Ipanemaâ.
The poet Mário Quintana (Alegrete, 1906, Porto Alegre, 1994) was particularly appreciated because of his fine irony and acuteness in dealing with topics of daily life.
Barbosa (2013) 16â7.
(1996) 35, 36, 40, passim.
Barbosa (2013) 25â6.
Translator of the Bible and translation theorist, Eugene Nida distinguished two modalities of equivalence between the original and the translated text: âformalâ and âdynamic equivalenceâ. The first would deal with the content and form of the source text, while the second would be based on what he called âequivalent effectâ. An example of dynamic equivalence that became famous was that of the proposed translation of the biblical term âlambâ by âsealâ, were the translation of the Bible intended to target an Eskimo audience, in whose culture the seal occupies a position corresponding to the one that the lamb holds in Jewish culture. See Munday (42016) 67â71.
Barbosa (2013) 32â3. E.g. 78, 1262, 1280.
(1996) 44.
See the translations of the same two passages by Rocha-Pereira (1996): âà meu pai, ó minha terra que eu deixei, / matando com opróbrio meu irmão!â (166â7: âO my father, O my land that I have left, / killing my brother with opprobium!â); âE eu, sozinha, sem pátria, sou ultrajada pelo marido, raptada de uma terra bárbara, sem ter mãe, nem irmão, nem parente, para me acolher desta desgraçaâ (255â8: âAnd I, alone, without a country, I am outraged by my husband, abducted from a barbarian land, without mother, brother or relative, to welcome me out of this misfortuneâ.)
See the translation by Rocha-Pereira (1996): âque eu já a vi olhá-los com os olhos bravos de um toiro, que vai fazer algo de terrÃvel; nem cessará a sua cólera, eu bem o sei, sem se abater sobre alguémâ (âbecause I have seen her look at them with the angry eyes of a bull, who is going to do something terrible; nor will her wrath cease, I know it well, without falling upon someoneâ).
Cf. Rocha-Pereira (1996) 39, 41.
Barbosa 2013: 16: âtodos, brasileiros ou gregos, temos nossos momentos de insensatez no amorâ.
Cf. Levý (1969) 98.
In his seminal work on literary translation, Jirà Levý discusses the question of how to translate realia, such as newspaper titles, which can convey information about the political position of a given character or the social class to which he/she belongs, but which are not decodable /easily understandable by the readers of a translation. As one of the processes for overcoming this distance in time and space, Levý points precisely to the âinnere Erläuterungâ strategy/method, which has the advantage, over the traditional footnotes, of keeping the information in the main body of the text, without the need of referring it to the paratextual apparatus. He recommends, however, that this process should be applied with great parsimony.
Translating is by nature a manipulative operation. See, in this sense, the provocative title of a classic of the Theory of Translation: the collection of essays The Manipulation of Literature, edited by Hermans (1985).
Barbosa (2014) 18â9.
Barbosa (2013) 18.
(2013) 16.
Barbosa (2013) 33â4: âEste foi o momento mais crÃtico: a ocasião de se verificar a qualidade de palco para cada verso. Quantas palavras pesavam, mal soavam, arrastavam-se no chão! Quantas modificações a cena exigiu! Quantas contendas entre todos! Atores de tradução e atores de cena buscavam seu estrelato. Nunca se ouviu tanto a palavra âmeuâ! E, todavia, nada soava como se supunha ter sido traduzido. Assustados, sofremos, amamo-nos e odiamo-nos. Do ponto de vista intrinsecamente coletivo do ritual religioso, social e polÃtico dedicado ao deus Dioniso, levar os atores-tradutores e atores de cena de uma cultura personalista como a nossa ao exercÃcio tradutório conjunto foi um gesto de crueldade, pura omofagia. Tivemos que intensificar o papel/função do diretor de tradução, que passou a agir não mais como um regente, mas como um sacerdote cruel na prática do sacrifÃcioâ.
Barbosa (2013) 23: âum organismo múltiplo, misturado e enormeâ.
Barbosa (2013) 33: âa marca do Antigo na nossa cultura dilaceradaâ.
Barbosa (2013) 155â89. This parody is presented as a Brazilian satura lanx, where the basic love/adventure/business story of Medea and Jason is presented by Radio Thebes (âRádio Tebasâ), the âsole radio station that pleases Greeks and Trojans alikeâ (157, âúnica emissora que agrada a gregos e troianosâ). The main lines of the myth are combined with contemporary events (like the financial crisis of modern Greece) or references to popular outlaws like Bonnie and Clyde and their Brazilian counterparts Lampião and Maria Bonita (184). Intertextuality is particularly frequent with Euripidesâ Medea (with direct allusions being identified in the footnotes) and Apolloniusâ Argonautica, although the epic style of Homer and Hesiod are also clearly present, as well as the universe of Aristophanes. Significantly enough, the playwright is the most important âsponsorâ of the broadcast, identified as âRefrigerators Aristophanesâ (âFrigorÃficos Aristóphanesâ), which provide âthe freshest frogâs meatâ (157, âa mais fresquinha carne de rãsâ), in a clear parodic allusion to the comedy Frogs.
A similar experience to that of Medea was carried out more recently with Electra, and there
Cf. Guldin (2008) 111.