My PhD Dissertation

UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DO RIO GRANDE DO SUL

INSTITUTO DE LETRAS

PROGRAMA DE PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO EM LETRAS

LITERATURAS DE LÍNGUA INGLESA

Doutorando: Gentil Saraiva Junior

RE-CREATING WALT WHITMAN’S LEAVES OF GRASS INTO PORTUGUESE

Tese de Doutoramento submetida à

Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

para a obtenção do grau de Doutor em Letras

na ênfase de Literaturas de Língua Inglesa.

Orientadora: Profª. Dra. Kathrin H. L. Rosenfield

Porto Alegre, 2008

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“Artists are the antennae of the race.”

(POUND, 1987, p.81)

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ABSTRACT

This work focuses on the creative translation of Walt Whitman’s poetry into Portuguese. The term that we use to refer to this process is re-creation, which is a type of translation that goes beyond literal translation (which favors the signified), searching for a work of conjoined reconstruction of signified and signifiers, due to the profound relation that exists between them (chapter 3 explains this method of creative translation; it also discusses the themes that are related to this in poetry, such as free verse, rhythm, meter, etc.). The term re-creation was borrowed from our masters in this type of translation, the Brazilian Concretist poets: Haroldo de Campos, Augusto de Campos and Décio Pignatari. In English, we use this word hyphenated, “re-creation” (and its derivatives), due to the fact that “recreation” indicates only diversion, an activity that is performed for relaxation and pleasure, and not “creating again”. It is necessary to remember that the precursor in this translatorial field, of translation which is also creation, was Ezra Pound, who brought us the idea of constant renewing of poetry via translation, and who is given more attention in sections 3.2 and 3.3.

There are other translations of Whitman’s works in Portuguese, including a complete edition of Leaves of Grass by Martin Claret publishing house (2005), of which we provide an account in section 2.2, however, none of them was carried out in a similar way to our own. Thus, the work we present here is original, although it is not complete. In the body of this dissertation, in chapter 4, we present the re-creation of twenty literary pieces, among poems and books, from Leaves of Grass, which is the volume that assembles the complete poetry of Whitman. Within the re-creations presented here, there is the poem “Out of the Cradle Endlessly Rocking”, which is part of Sea-Drift, and which had been added as an annex to our Master’s thesis. This poem has been revised and corrected, and has been included here in order for the Sea-Drift cluster to be complete. In section 2.1 there is an explanation about the publishing history of Leaves of Grass. In addition to the historical context of this publication, chapter 2 presents a critical analysis of the works, author, and a central symbol in the Leaves, which is the calamus root. The re-creation of “Calamus”, as well as of “Children of Adam” and “Song of Myself” appears in our Master’s thesis (SARAIVA, 1995).

Key-words: Creative translation; Leaves of Grass; Whitman.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 INTRODUCTION

2 WHITMAN’S POETRY: CRITICISM AND CONTEXT

2.1 History of Leaves of Grass

2.2 Brazilian editions of Leaves of Grass

2.3 What we have done and what we intend to do

2.4 Leaves of Grass: secondary sources

2.5 Addressing some themes in Leaves of Grass

2.5.1 The myth of calamus

2.5.2 Two other elements in the myth: water and swimmers