Os afazeres de Babel

Abstract

We live in a time that might be called a time of translation.Everywhere, we need to read or to listen to utterances that wereoriginally written or spoken in languages that are strange to us. So,we do not need a theoretical approach to conclude that it is possibleto translate a text from one language to a different one. But, is thisreal? Especially, is this real when we talk about Literature? Is possibleto translate a poem? Beginning with Cicero in Ancient Rome, wetrace a rout through Saint Jerome, Ortega y Gasset and other thinkersto discuss the answers to these questions. This short essay is just afirst approach which more than supplying answers, seeks for adebate on the important questions related to this subject. It hasonly one conclusion: two thousand years of reflections on theproblem of translation has not been sufficient to solve it.

“Non solum fateor, sed libera uoce profiteor me ininterpretatione Graecorum absque scripturis sanctis,ubi et uerborum ordo mysteriam est, non uerbum euerbo sed sensum exprimere de sensu.”(Eusebius Hieronymus)