“A DANCE OF STRENGTH”: STRUCTURAL ELEMENTS IN THREE TRANSLATIONS OF RAINER MARIA RILKE

Abstract In this paper, I intend to investigate if and how the structural elements of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poem “Der Panther” (“The panther”) were recreated by three of his most influential translators in Brazil, namely by Geir Campos (1924-1999) in 1953, by José Paulo Paes (1926-1998) in 1993 and by Augusto de Campos (1931- ) in 1994. Based on the assumptions presented by Haroldo de Campos in the essay “Of translations as creation and criticism” (1963), according to which the translation of poetry is a work with “the sign itself […], that is, the sign’s tangible self, its very materiality” (Campos (a) 315, translated by Diana Gibson and Haroldo de Campos), I intend to firstly point out the even greater importance of these elements in those poems by Rilke (among them “Der Panther”) which have been described by critics (Müller 298) as “Dinggedicht” (or “thing-poem”) for the last hundred years. Secondly, I will briefly analyse the original poem’s structural elements (meaning here meter, alliterations, assonances, phrasal movement and other aspects of the materiality of the linguistic sign). Finally, I intend to briefly compare the ways by which the three translators dealt with these structural elements in their respective translations to the Portuguese.

摘要：本文旨在探讨莱纳·玛利亚·里尔克（Rainer Maria Rilke）诗作《豹》（*Der Panther*）的结构元素，是否以及如何被巴西三位极具影响力的译者重构：分别是1953年完成译本的盖尔·坎波斯（Geir Campos，1924-1999）、1993年完成译本的若泽·保罗·佩斯（José Paulo Paes，1926-1998），以及1994年完成译本的奥古斯托·德·坎波斯（Augusto de Campos，1931- ）。基于哈罗德·德·坎波斯（Haroldo de Campos）1963年发表的随笔《作为创作与批评的翻译》（*Of translations as creation and criticism*）中提出的核心假设：诗歌翻译是一项关乎"符号本身……亦即符号的可感实体，其物质性本身"（Campos (a) 315，由戴安娜·吉布森与哈罗德·德·坎波斯译出）的创作活动，本文首先将阐明，里尔克诸多被批评家（Müller 298）百余年来归类为"物诗"（*Dinggedicht*，或thing-poem）的诗作（含《豹》）中，其结构元素的重要性更为凸显。其次，本文将简要分析原诗的结构元素——此处特指格律、头韵、元韵（assonances）、语流节奏以及语言符号物质性的其他维度。最后，本文将简要对比三位译者在各自葡萄牙语译本中处理此类结构元素的不同路径。