A tradução de personagens: uma análise com base na tradução do conto “La Intrusa”, de Jorge Luis Borges, para os idiomas inglês e português

Abstract

Translation studies are still new as a science, but old as a topic of debate. And also, since translation is a task of endless complexity, that involves meaning-producing subjects, it is important that more studies in the area are developed. In order to think about translation and, more specifically, translation of characters, this study was dedicated to look at the character Juliana Burgos, from the short story La Intrusa by Jorge Luis Borges, published in the book El Informe de Brodie. The short story, originally written in Spanish, describes the conflict experienced by the Nilsen brothers when they fell in love with the same woman. Through a grammar-lexical analysis, the objective was to think and analyze Juliana’s construction based on the choices made by the translators in the Portuguese and English versions. To reach this goal, the versions produced by the Brazilian writer, literary critic and translator Davi Arrigucci Junior, published by Companhia das Letras, were chosen, as well as the version translated by the North American Norman Thomas de Giovanni, made in collaboration with Jorge Luis Borges, published by Penguin Books. The text that was taken as original is this paper was the one published by Contemporánea. To achieve the objectives, this work debated the construction of literature as a science and the importance of characters in the elaboration and evolution of the plot, as well discussed and historicized the construction of a theory of translation and its importance in the popularization of literature. The duality between freedom X literality, form X content, dichotomous relations that permeate the studies of translation was strongly approached. The most recent studies were also considered, which recognize the importance of the reader/translator in the construction of the work's meaning, inserting concepts of subjectivity to the translation processes. In addition, part of this writing was dedicated to understand and establish the importance of the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges in two of his diverse actuations: Borges was contextualized as an author, giving him due importance prominence in Latin American and world literature, besides of giving attention to his role as translator, since his actuation in this area cannot be underestimated, once he has a fundamental importance for the construction of contemporary theories of translation. For the translation analysis proposed by this study, were used the concepts presented by Diccionario de la Lengua Española of the Real Academia Española, by Gramática y Prática de Español para Brasileiños from Santillana publisher, by the English dictionaries Merriam-Webster Dictionary, North 9 American, and Cambridge Dictionaries Online, from England, the English Grammar in Use, online dictionary Aulete Digital and the Nova Gramática do Português Contemporâneo. After comparative reading and observations of the translation choices involving the story elements and, mainly, the character Juliana Burgos, it was possible to identify that emerges, in each version, the construction of different Julianas Burgos, that have subtle differences in personality expression of their desire, but that keeps the same essence in them, allowing the reader to identify the Juliana built by Borges in the, considered, original version.