To Be or Not to Be Nobody: Emily Dickinson in Two Brazilian Translations

Abstract

This article resumes a discussion of the problems inherent to the editing and reception of Emily Dickinson’s oeuvre to address the also problematic selection and translation of the American poet’s work in Brazil. Following the recontextualization proposed by Cristanne Miller (2012) and André Lefevere's translation theory (1992), we offer a comparative reading of two Brazilian translations of the poem "I'm Nobody! Who are you?" (Fr260) – one by Aíla de Oliveira Gomes (DICKINSON; GOMES, 1985) and the other by Augusto de Campos (DICKINSON; CAMPOS, 1986) – to analyse the relationship between translation and reception while also questioning the canonical myth of Dickinson's poetic isolation.

Keywords

• emily dickinson
• poesia
• tradução.