Entre a afronta e a ironia: traduzindo os diferentes registros da agressão em textos polêmicos do século XVI

Abstract

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.