By analyzing all the books and poems we have translated and the samples provided above, for some of which we have supplied a second translation for comparison, we believe that we have met our own expectations of the re-creation of Whitman’s poetry into our language. Even though it is very difficult to criticize our own work, for we may fall prey to self-praise, by comparing our re-created poetic texts to other existing translations, it becomes clear that our approach to this task is at least different from the usual literal or almost literal translations, especially in regard to rhythm, as we have emphasized at the beginning of this chapter. We have been able to maintain the flow of the poems and we feel that their reading aloud shall show this, because we are constantly testing how they sound. What we mean by this is that we have always tried to find the best possible combination of sounds in each verse or parts of verse. Our purpose in this, it is not to make the verses sound beautiful, but to set the best phonic combination to transmit the sense of the verse in English. There are cases in which the effect might be exactly the opposite, that is, to describe scenes where evil thoughts and diseases are present. Besides, we have performed a careful work on vocabulary, so that the passages or words in the original that convey a sense of strangeness could be transmitted in Portuguese that way. However, there is more than just strangeness: Whitman liked to use words borrowed from other languages, such as French, Spanish and native American languages (ex.: savant, Libertad, Paumanok), he liked to write words with “k” (Kanadian, kosmos), and he sometimes changed the spelling of words (he wrote “carlacue” in section 20 of “Song of Myself,” but the correct spelling is “curlicue” or “curlicue”). Together with his extensive vocabulary in Leaves of Grass, more than 13,000 words, the task of researching and checking every single word is tremendous. In this case, the Norton Critical Edition (WHITMAN, 2002) has been of great help with its incredible number of notes to poems and vocabulary. We have done the same thorough action regarding grammatical structures and punctuation, as well as Whitman’s way of using certain collocations, particularly with adjectives, which he tends to use where they do not fit in correct English (he likes to use adjectives after the nouns, which is not considered syntactically acceptable in the English language). As in Portuguese the adjectives can go before or after the nouns, we have always tried to arrange them in the best way possible, that is, to maintain the original atmosphere of the poems. Another aspect that we have re-created with utmost care is the use of the –ing forms, whether they are verbs or nouns, since they are an essential part of Whitman’s verse.
Apart from all that we have written before, we do know that a translator’s job is never finished, for every time we return to the poems we will look for any kinds of mistakes, and we will certainly find them, and we will verify every verse again trying to make it better, as we have done with our previous re-creations. However, we also know that there is a time when our eyes are not able to find mistakes any more, due to excessive proximity to the texts. Thus, we leave this task now, as well as the judgment on our work, to the critics and readers. Paraphrasing Whitman, we are pleased with what we have done with the poems.
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