A Cadernos de Literatura em Tradução é uma coedição do Departamento de Letras Modernas e do CITRAT - Centro Interdepartamental de Tradução -, ambos da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo. Desde 1997, o objetivo principal da Cadernos é publicar literatura em tradução do e para o português, especialmente poesia e ficção curta, acompanhada de comentários. Também publica artigos sobre tradução literária, entrevistas e resenhas de traduções publicadas.
Universidade de São Paulo. Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas
This work consists of the commented translation of a short story—that delves into the personal and professional impact of the COVID pandemic and the lockdowns on a married couple—written by Mary O’Donnell, a well-known and highly regarded Irish writer of poetry, short stories and novels, and published in The Manchester Review in August of 2022. The translation itself is preceded by comments that highlight some of the main challenges and that attempt to justify the decision-making process within the theoretical framework defined by the notion of “instrumental reading” (Averbach, 2011), and based on the analysis of differential features between English and Spanish and the translation strategies detailed by López Guix and Wilkinson (1997). The main purpose of this exercise is to bring to Spanish readers a small sample of the works of a contemporary author that dwell on topics that are relatable and relevant across borders and cultures due to the globalized nature of the major issues of this time.
Especial Irlanda: Os Muitos Mapas da Irlanda
Copyright (c) 2024 Mary O'Donnell; Nahuel Videla https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Dois romances gregos em tradução brasileira de Adriane da Silva Duarte
Resenha de CÁRITON DE AFRODÍSIAS. Quéreas & Calírroe. Tradução, apresentação e posfácio de Adriane da Silva Duarte. São Paulo: Editora 34, 2020, 205 p. (Coleção Fábula) e de XENOFONTE DE ÉFESO. Efesíacas. O romance de Ântia e Habrocomes. Edição bilíngue. Introdução, tradução e notas e Adriane da Silva Duarte. São Paulo: Mnēma, 2024, 191 p. (Biblioteca Monumenta).
Copyright (c) 2025 Orlando Luiz de Araújo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Tradução e estudo do primeiro capítulo de Leucipe e Clitofonte
Abstract: This paper presents a translation and a study of the first chapter of Achilles Tatius’s novel, Leucippe and Clitophon. The study aims to discuss some choices made in the translation. The opening chapter of Leucippe and Clitophon can be read and interpreted separately from the main narrative, as it serves as a preamble to the plot. In it, an anonymous narrator composes two ekphraseis. To discuss the proposed translation, the study explores the textual construction of the chapter, shedding light on the elements, themes, and techniques used, highlighting the elaboration of the landscapes contained in the ekphraseis. The article is divided into three sections. The first introduces the work, its author, and its historical context. The second presents the Greek text and the translation. The final section is dedicated to the study of the excerpt.
Copyright (c) 2025 Isabel Passos Lopez https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Traduzir, redescobrir, preservar: três relatos de experiências com poesia grega
Translation is the starting point for any study in Classics, being a tool for accessing the ancient language with the aim of not only learning it, but also bringing the literary text closer to its audience. In this sense, this article brings together the experiences with the work of translation of three doctoral students, presenting their points of view regarding difficulties, methods, and solutions.
Copyright (c) 2025 Thais Rocha Carvalho, Isabella Demarchi, Clara Mossry Sperb https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Aos nossos tempos modernos: uma proposta de tradução da Odisseia de Emily Wilson
This article aims to analyze and discuss the reception of the translation of Homer’s Odyssey by the British professor and translator Emily Wilson, since it was published in 2017. It is the first translation of the Odyssey into English made by a woman, and it was highly commented on for its feminist approach – made clear in Wilson (2018; 2019) – and its use of contemporary language. I emphasize on how the discussion promoted by Wilson is important and necessary, both in her intention to re-democratize the work, and to question the proportionally few female translators in the field of classics, especially epic poetry. I also present a translation of the first 207 lines of Wilson’s translation into Portuguese, in decasyllables, verse by verse. The motivation for translating this excerpt is to comment on some of Wilson’s most controversial decisions, and to bring even more to the Brazilian scene the discussion of gender studies triggered by it. And, along with this, emphasize the importance of reviewing classical texts from new perspectives.
Copyright (c) 2025 Layla Gabriel de Oliveira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Hellenistic Poetry in Translation by Brazilian Women: A Yet Untrodden Path
Although the studies of Hellenistic poetry have increased in Brazil since the early 2000s, following global trends both in growth and research topic interests, translations published in books are mostly done by male scholars. Bibliographical research using dissertation databases show that there are more translations done by female researchers in academic work and they tend to be sessions of their MA and PhD dissertations. However, hardly ever do they become published books, remaining idly in open access university repositories. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to describe and analyze the persistent gender disparity found in Hellenistic poetry translations in book format and to propose some actions to diminish gender asymmetry in the translation of classical texts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Flavia Vasconcellos Amaral https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Flores de Meleagro: a pré-história do amor
This work presents a collection of ten love epigrams by Meleager of Gadara, translated into Portuguese in two versions—one technical and the other poetic—offering a brief sample of the author’s love poetry.
Copyright (c) 2025 Juliana Di Fiori Pondian https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
This paper presents a translation of Horace, Odes 2.19, with an introduction and commentary. The poem is not only central to the characterization of Bacchus but also relevant to the poetic program of the Odes, as it highlights transformations in both subject matter and the poet’s persona. The translation, in free verse, aims to reproduce the meaning and content of the original text in Latin. The commentary includes notes on poetic, historical, and cultural aspects, as well as philological and interpretative issues.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lya Serignolli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Scripta mulierum: proposta de tradução da carta LI de Constanza Varano (1444) a Isotta Nogarola do latim para o português do Brasil
This paper proposes the translation into Brazilian Portuguese of Letter LI, written in Latin by Constanza Varano in 1444 and addressed to Isotta Nogarola, two prominent authors of the 15th century. The purpose of the translation is not only to present a representative work of women’s literary production during Italian Humanism but also to contribute to the recognition of female authorship in Latin within this context. To this end, we provide an overview of the historical and literary setting of the period, highlighting the role of women in Latin intellectual productions and exploring the theoretical and methodological principles underpinning our translation proposal. In particular, we emphasize the dialogue between the fields of Translation Studies and materialist Discourse Analysis, analyzing their implications for the translation process. By presenting an unpublished translation of Letter LI by Constanza Varano, we aim to expand the dissemination of her work and underscore the significant female literary production in Latin during the Renaissance, promoting its appreciation in Brazil and other Portuguese-speaking countries.
Copyright (c) 2025 Thaíse Bastos Pio https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Vatis Proba: acerca dos versos (não-)virgilianos do centão De laudibus Christi
This article discusses the use of the poetic composition technique known as cento by the Christian poet Proba (4th century) in the poem De laudibus Christi, with emphasis on the first authorial 23 lines, and the author’s modifications of Virgil’s verses throughout the text. The article also includes a proposed translation of Proba’s original poetry.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sandra Braga Bianchet https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Feminea loquacitas: mulheres e oratória em Valério Máximo e Giovanni Boccaccio
We present here a translation of an excerpt from Valerius Maximus (1st century CE) and another from Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375). Both texts feature Hortensia (1st century BCE), daughter of the orator Quintus Hortensius Hortalus (114-50 BCE). In the third chapter of the eighth book of Facta et dicta memorabilia, Valerius Maximus includes Hortensia among the examples of women who pleaded before magistrates for themselves or for others. Boccaccio, in turn, dedicates one of his biographies in De mulieribus claris (LXXXIV) to her. It is striking how the Renaissance author, despite being heir to a misogynistic tradition from Antiquity and the Middle Ages, seems to paint his Hortensia in a more positive light when compared to Valerius Maximus’ portrait.
Copyright (c) 2025 Carol Martins da Rocha, Talita Janine Juliani https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Minha própria pequenez recorre a teu mais justo favor: a amizade em Valério Máximo
This paper proposes a Brazilian Portuguese translation of the opening (1.pr.) and the passage on friendship (4.7) of Facta et dicta memorabilia (Memorable Deeds and Sayings) by Valerius Maximus. Thus, the text is introduced by its author, enabling us to grasp a virtue that has one of the longest definitions in the work. The objective, in line with the proposals of Antoine Berman (2007 [1985]), was to maintain the reader’s sense of estrangement from a literary work from the first century CE, while making concessions — such as explanatory notes — to avoid a blurred reading of a text that has not yet been widely translated in Brazil. Brief comments addressing the characteristics of Maximus’s work and the translation process precede the translated text.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jéssica Frutuoso Mello https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
De Hipermnestra a Linceu: estudo e tradução poética de Heroides 14, de Ovídio
This paper presents a Brazilian Portuguese poetic translation, with explanatory notes, of Ovid’s fourteenth letter from the Heroides. The translation is preceded by a brief essay on the letter, in order to contextualize the myth involving Hypermestra and Linceus, as well as to highlight its particularities in the Ovidian epistle, with special emphasis on the image that Hypermestra constructs for herself as first-person speaker. At the end, I offer a comment on my translation into Portuguese. The Latin elegiac couplets were transferred into Portuguese as couplets of double ‘redondilhas’: the hexameter as two ‘redondilhas maiores’ (verses of 7 syllables) juxtaposed, and the pentameter as two ‘redondilhas menores’ (verses of 5 syllables) juxtaposed. Furthermore, the musicality in Portuguese was explored through figures of sound (such as alliteration, assonances, and paronomasia), and, mainly, through the rhymes at the end of the lines.
Copyright (c) 2025 Júlia Batista Castilho de Avellar https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Um pobre que perde seu único ganha pão e outros horrores das declamações latinas, agora em português
This article discusses the development of the postgraduate project Horresco referens: study and translation of nefarious cases in Latin declamations, which began in 2020 and has been carried out over the last few years by a group of seven translators linked to the Postgraduate Program in Literary Studies at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF). We explore the theme of nefarious cases that guides this research project, detailing the progress of the translations and publications of the texts initially selected. In addition, we offer a brief introduction to Major Declamation 13 (the poor man’s bees), which, although at first glance it seemed to deviate from the original proposal, turned out to be a refined piece, with significant points in common with the previously chosen declama- tions. Finally, we present a full translation into Brazilian Portuguese of the thirteenth declamation attributed by tradition to the rhetorician Quintilian.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ana Clara Vizeu Lopes, Charlene Martins Miotti https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Vivências tradutórias: um excerto da História Natural
Translation requires the use of techniques and practices specific to each language. Cicero, in the 1st century BC, already discussed that his version of Greek works into Latin was not a simple transposition of words from one language to another, as each one has very unique characteristics, which could not allow reproduction. In Brazil, translation theories began to gain greater importance mainly from the 1950s onwards, with linguistic and semiotic studies. Here I try to show how my translation journey took place, proposing the commented and annotated translation of an excerpt from Natural History, making some discussions about the translation act.
Copyright (c) 2025 Ana Thereza Basilio Vieira https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Entre a afronta e a ironia: traduzindo os diferentes registros da agressão em textos polêmicos do século XVI
This paper offers a brief reflection on some specific challenges involved in translating satirical and polemical discourses from the 16th century. On the one hand, one of the main difficulties lies in translating comic texts, whose effectiveness often relies on contextual references that may be inaccessible to contemporary readers, resulting in the potential “loss of the joke,” especially when such humor draws on scholarly allusions or linguistic play involving the Greek language. On the other hand, it points to the challenge of preserving the vehement and, at times, aggressive tone of religious discourse from the period, whose virulence may strike modern readers as surprising or even shocking. These issues are explored through examples drawn from translations by the author of excerpts by Erasmus of Rotterdam, Michael Servetus, and John Calvin.
Copyright (c) 2025 Elaine C. Sartorelli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Uma tradução inédita de Anna Lia A. A. Prado: a Patologia, História da Guerra do Peloponeso (III.82-83)
Anna Lia A. A. Prado (1925-2017) published the translation of Book I of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War, but she did not complete the project of translating the entire work. However, she left several passages of the text translated and revised, including “The Pathology,” which refers to the brief section on the effects of the civil war on society found in Book III (Thucydides, III.82-83). Given the distinctive quality of her translation, which captures the rigorous style of the Greek historian’s prose, I propose its publication, accompanied by a brief commentary.
Copyright (c) 2025 Adriane da Silva Duarte https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Tradução de comédia grega antiga: a “Ode à lâmpada” no prólogo de Mulheres na Assembleia (v. 1-18) em duas versões
This article aims to present the path followed in translating the first 18 lines of the comic dramatic poem Ecclesiazousae (392/391 BCE), also known as Assemblywomen, by the Greek playwright Aristophanes, into Portuguese in two formats: prose and poetry. We will discuss various readings from translation studies and theatrical semiotics fields to understand the work as a play with features unique to its time and context. The goal is to preserve some of these elements in the translation that highlight the text’s foreignness and proxemics. We aim to present a functionalist translation revitalizing Aristophanic comedy for contemporary Brazilian audiences. This will be achieved by selecting equivalent expressions in the target language. Regarding poetic translation, we will point out some of the adjustments made to carry out this task to provide the reader with an experience that brings him/her closer to the aesthetic effects of the poem’s production in ancient Greece.
Copyright (c) 2025 Greice Drumond https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Acerca das Refutações Sofísticas, de Aristóteles, capítulos 1 e 16
Translation of chapters 1 and 16 of Aristotle’s On Sophistical Refutations, accompanied by a brief introduction and explanatory notes. This is an excerpt from a work in progress, submitted for technical review in March 2025, as part of the larger project of translating the Complete Works of Aristotle, coordinated by Professor António Pedro Mesquita, from the University of Lisbon. The treatise is the last volume of the Organon and is dedicated, first, to exposing and classifying the arguments present in eristic conversation, and then to addressing solutions for a respondent who wants to escape the malice of the sophistic interrogator, or even who wants to learn how to avoid making reasoning errors when researching alone.
Copyright (c) 2025 Alice Bitencourt Haddad https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Melissa a Clareta: sobre a compostura feminina
Melissa to Clareta is a letter of uncertain authorship commonly classified as Pythagorean pseudoepistolography, which dates between the 2nd century BCE and the 2nd century CE. In presenting its first translation from Greek into Portuguese, I intend to describe the feminine virtue advised by the author to free women: εὐκοσμία, which I translate as composure. Described as an embellishment for the husband, composure is achieved through quietness and a certain dress code, and its essence is good house management. Finally, I situate this letter in the context of other treatises of the Pythagorean pseudoepigraph written by women and show how it functions as a link between Antiquity and nascent Christian morality, expressed in the First Letter to Timothy by Paul of Tarsus.
Copyright (c) 2025 Carolina Araújo https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Companheiras, cortesãs ou cativas? Traduzindo as mulheres da Anábase, de Xenofonte
In this article, I discuss some problems that I encountered during the translation process of Xenophon’s (c. 430-354 BC) Anabasis, in passages that feature female characters. Certain choices could accentuate a stereotypical view of women in Antiquity, something that Xenophon, in particular, seems to have sought to avoid. However, the greatest difficulty concerns how to refer collectively, in Portuguese, to the women who, at first under coercion, accompany the retreating Greek troops after the Battle of Cunaxa.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lucia Sano https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Se a virtude pode ser ensinada, de Plutarco: tradução e comentário
This is the first Portuguese translation in Brazil of the very brief Plutarchan treatise titled Whether Virtue Can Be Taught. We note that the concepts cited by Plutarch parallel Platonic thought, especially in the Meno dialogue. In this treatise, Plutarch reflects on the importance of teaching and learning virtue. From this perspective, Plutarch discusses whether it is possible to teach prudence, justice, and good living (439A) in the same way as is done in the learning of crafts and other arts (439B).
Copyright (c) 2025 Maria Aparecida de Oliveira Silva https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Sobre a razão dos animais irracionais, de Plutarco
This paper presents a new translation of Plutarch’s dialogue Bruta animalia ratione uti. Revisiting the Homeric scene of Odysseus’s encounter with Circe, Plutarch, through the voice of the pig Gryllus, questions aspects of Greek anthropocentrism, arguing for the rationality and virtue of animals. The translation aims to capture the playful tone and linguistic nuances of the original text, drawing on established translations and employing colloquialisms to make the text more fluid. At the same time, it maintains consistency in the translation of philosophical vocabulary and includes explanatory notes to clarify translation choices and cultural contexts.
Copyright (c) 2025 Clara Crepaldi https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Odisseia, canto 6: um laboratório de tradução poético-filológica
Far from being a merely technical procedure, translation highlights the culture, training, sensitivity, and methodology of the translator. For this reason, this work proposes an initial experiment for a new translation of Homer’s Odyssey. Although we are currently experiencing a flourishing moment for Homer translations in Brazil, this new translation will prioritize clarity, conciseness, precision, and aesthetics, all considered with equal importance, and it will present concise explanatory notes that address Homeric poetics and its universe. The paper proposes a translation of Book 6, guided by this approach.
Copyright (c) 2025 Giuliana Ragusa, Rafael Brunhara https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Homero em cores: fantasia metaplasmática (Ilíada XXI, vv. 383-520)
We propose a so called metaplasmic fantasy translation of Homer’s Iliad (21.383-520) to demonstrate the relevance of maintaining the linguistic diversity of Homeric poems (both in their narrative and essentially mimetic parts) in the translation process. We believe that a version of poems that considers linguistic variation ensures dynamism, humor, and vivacity, as well as polychromy. We therefore attempt to preserve the text’s linguistic coloration by combining Greek and Luso-Brazilian dialectal forms (provided by information from studies and dictionaries). The rhythm—not the meter—was drawn from studies by Henri Meschonnic (2010, 2006, 1985). The dramatic markings were based on the studies of Donald Lateiner (2017, 2005, 1998, 1987). Roughly speaking, the process is analogous to the reconstruction of colors in ancient sculptures, a procedure that can be seen in the work of archaeologists Vinzenz Brinkmann and Ulrike Koch-Brinkmann, who, when presenting it to the public, recall verses from Euripides’ Helen: “Faded as a statue, and in another form, instead of beautiful, all washed I would be...”.
Copyright (c) 2025 Tereza Virgínia Ribeiro Barbosa https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Bacantes com razão: mulheres que traduzem clássicos no Brasil
Apresentação da Cadernos de Literatura em Tradução n. 30.
Copyright (c) 2025 Renata Cazarini de Freitas, Adriane da Silva Duarte https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Abandonar um gato: relações familiares e a guerra
Copyright (c) 2025 Ana Boschiroli https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Algumas faces de Yuriko: resenha de Mulheres sobre as quais desejo escrever
Resenha de Mulheres sobre as quais desejo escrever, de Yuriko Miyamoto, coletânea de contos, ensaios, diários e falas da autora, que abarca quase cinco décadas de produção.
Copyright (c) 2025 Pedro Chicaroni https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Book review of The Last Children of Tokyo by Tawada Yōko, published in Brazil in 2023 by Todavia. The Portuguese translation was carried out by Satomi Takano Kitahara (Coordinator), Daniel Leal, Elisa Figueira de Sousa Corrêa, Elisa Massae Sasaki, José Luiz Martins Lessa, Maria Ester Reis Martins, Max Daniel Silveira de Freitas, Moisés Arthur Paulino Polzin, and Tiago Pereira do Rego.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fabio Saldanha https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
A tradução como ferramenta para o estudo de literatura japonesa clássica – o caso de Ise Monogatari do século X
Ise Monogatari (伊勢物語) is a 10th-century short narrative divided into 125 chapters centered around waka poems, and thus classified in Japan as utamonogatari. Attributed to Ariwara no Narihira, a 10th-century Heian court poet, the stories are relatively independent and vary in length, making them suitable for a collective assisted translation experience. This article presents the experience carried out with undergraduate students in Japanese Language and Literature at the University of São Paulo. It outlines the translation process by student translators with different prior linguistic and cultural knowledge, and its partial sharing with classmates and an external audience. Translation served as a tool for better understanding a classical Japanese literary work and proved to be a motivating exercise in learning both classical and modern Japanese. As an example, one episode is presented, with a focus on translating the waka poems, which are at the heart of Ise Monogatari.
Copyright (c) 2025 Neide Nagae https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0