Transcreating the moon in a concrete light: A translation proposal for “!/o(rounD)moon,how”, by E. E. Cummings

Abstract

This article will present two translation proposals for “!/o(rounD)moon,how” by E. E. Cummings (1894–1962). Included in the book 95 Poems (1958), the poem is no less experimental than the other components of the work, with the author’s manipulation of language and use of white space on the page being indispensable aspects to be recovered in translations of the title. Taking into account the theories of the Campos brothers and Pignatari, who promote a translational project linked to creation and critical exercise, as well as the translations of the younger Paulista poet, Augusto de Campos, of Cummings’ work, the objective is to transcreate the miniature above mentioned to English, recovering some meanings from it and proposing others, as far it is authorized within the poem. Establishing a connection with Literary Theory, the sense effects constructed in these transcreations will be closely analyzed. The analytical procedure should highlight features of the Cummingsian work condensed in “!/o(rounD)moon,how”, offering research in the area of translation of a version of a poem not yet rendered into Brazilian Portuguese.