From Ana Clara Melo
It was never going to be easy. Poetry is one of the most challenging forms of writing to translate into another language.Nuanced, complex, with a unique use of words, meanings, and rhythm, translating poetry is gruelling at times. 'Osso de cachorro', goes the Brazilian popular saying: hard as a bone given to a dog to chew.
An opportunity, however, was granted by fate. A Brazilian poet, crroma, moved abroad, which inadvertently allowed him, as the years went by, to dedicate more time to literature. Even better, crroma was also a friend.
Nevertheless, I would have to convince him to embark on a translation project. A snowball's chance in hell, as goes another popular saying. My friend thinks Brazilian Portuguese is prone to poetry in a way unrivalled by other languages.
If you translate a poem into Brazilian Portuguese, you may have the possibility to make it richer, subtler, prettier, deeper. The same does not happen the other way around.
So I first persuaded crroma to set up a project of his own. With a little help from a third common friend, he began running a website publishing his favourite Brazilian poets and a few of his own poems - an online sketchbook of his poetic experiments.
After a year or so, I gave him a call.
"You know what?" I said. "We should translate Brazilian poetry into English."
"When you say 'we', you mean 'you'," crroma replied.
"There isn't much out there, right? On the internet."
"Hum..." he grunted.
"It is a good idea and you cannot deny it."
"Is it? I am no translator," he said, which was his way of telling me he had no interest whatsoever on my idea.
Well, I called again.
I sent him text messages, emails with hundreds of lines, and did another call.
He knew I would be stopping only when he had agreed with me. And this is the end of the story.
From crroma
"I am not so sure about it."Contributions are welcomed.