Commented translation of the story Cinta grabada by the paraguayan writer Mario Halley Mora

Abstract

The text presents the commented translation into Portuguese of the short story Cinta grabada by the Paraguayan writer Mario Halley Mora. The purpose of this article is to briefly discuss the translation choices with the aim of problematizing the diversity of the linguistic systems involved in the source text: Spanish and Guarani; as well as the resources used in the target language: the variety of Brazilian Portuguese. According to Rabadán (1991), it is usual in the literature to use diatopic or diastratic varieties in the characterization of the characters. It is observed that the Paraguayan literature is permeated by uses of the Guarani language, whether in the use of lexicons or in the manifestation of its influence on the variety of Paraguayan Spanish. The author, with the purpose of portraying the linguistic reality of Paraguay, mobilizes, in the speech of his character, characteristics of the less educated social class (diastratic dimension). Thus, in the translation, we consider for centuries Paraguayan bilingualism, product of the contact between the Guarani and the Spanish, that generated mutual influences between both languages ”‹”‹involved. In the variety of Paraguayan Spanish, it is possible to see not only lexical influences of Guarani (the most evident result of contact), but also phonetic and morphosyntactic influences. Such characteristics are formulated in the short story and challenge the work of the translator. The richness of the story is not restricted to the variety re-created in the narrator's speech.