Translation and the Maxacali tradition

Abstract

We will discuss some translations made by Maxakali teachers. The Maxakali indigenous pueblo lives in the Mucuri Valley, in the northeast of Minas Gerais. They talk and write in Maxakali, a language from the Maxakali family, from the Macro-Jê linguistic stem. They translated some of their traditional songpoems into Portuguese, aiming at the publication of a book on their healthy subjects. They also translated the lyrics of a Brasilian traditional song from Portuguese into Maxakali, as an exercise in the Portuguese classes in the context of the Indian schools governmental program. Keywords: Yãmîy. Indians. Maxakali. Poetry. Translation. Tradition.