Four poems by René Maran

notes on reading, translation and performance

Abstract

We present here a testimonial account of the translation of four poems by René Maran published for the first time in Les belles images (1935): “Monna Lisa”, “Othelo”, “Musique de chambre” and “Résignation”. The parameters that guided the translator’s task fit into a question: How to say in Portuguese what the poems say in their significance (cf. Laranjeira, 2003), that is, in their formal parameters and in their semantics? By producing a double of Maran’s poems, the translator produced an alterity in her language – in the act of translating; in the new, generated text; and in the performance (cf. Zumthor, 2007; Flores and Gonçalves, 2017) of one of them. Maran’s poems and their translations share an identity – that of significance – in itself composed of multiple voices. Translation is, therefore, the meeting and dialogue of Maran’s poetic project with the poetic project of the translator who shares the craft of verse with him.