“Tu, eu e o poema”: tradução comentada de uma seleção da poesia lírico-amorosa de E. E. Cummings

Abstract

This work proposes commented translations of six lyric-love poems by the American writer E. E. Cummings (1894–1962) into Brazilian Portuguese. First, I provide an overview of Cummings’s work, outlining the characteristics of his language and highlighting the significance of his lyrical poetry for a deeper understanding of his poetics. Next, I explore how Cummings’s work was received in Brazil, analyzing how Augusto de Campos’s translation project, within the context of the concrete poetry movement, led to the creation of a “Brazilian Cummings” and a gap in the reception of the author’s love poetry. In the second chapter, I present theoretical considerations on poetry translation that inspired my own translation project, with an emphasis on Haroldo de Campos’s concept of “transcreation” and Paulo Henriques Britto’s work. Finally, in the third chapter, I present my proposed translations for the poems “nothing false and possible is love”; “true lovers in each happening of their hearts”; “the great advantage of being alive”; “if everything happens that can't be done”; “now all the fingers of this tree(darling)have”; and “i carry your heart with me(i carry it in”, adopting the descriptive and analytical methodology of commented translation, focusing on exploring the translation process by unpacking its reflections, challenges, and possibilities.