Il Brasile, i Brasili e Brasilia: The Challenge of Translating Gilberto Freyre to Italian Language

Abstract

This article comprises one of the main challenges faced in the Italian translation of the collection of essays entitled Brasis, Brasil e Brasilia (Il Brasile, i Brasili e Brasilia), by Gilberto Freyre. This work, published in 1968, addresses various social issues of public interest, including anthropological, sociological and political, that are not specific to Brazil. Freyre focuses on those issues that fall under scientific criteria and are not predominantly civic or national. Due to the typical style of Gilberto Freyre, the discussion focuses primarily on theoretical reflections linked to the importance of the active presence of the translator within the translated text; subsequently, it presents examples that are considered most representative. Solutions to the complex syntax of the Brazilian author and his use of verbal constructs that do not have a direct correspondence in Italian are also evidenced. In this case, the translation may contain changes in the syntactic structure of the source manuscripts, resulting in the creation of a new text. Regarding the text Brasis, Brasil e Brasília, the lexicosemantic richness and the complex syntactic structure combine to create a powerfully expressive language. This language is also considered especially rich from the perspective of Brazilian national identity, which has not always been easy to translate into Italian.