Tempo morto e outros tempos: the Italian translation of Gilberto Freyre’s personal diary from the Brazilian Portuguese

Abstract

In his personal diary Tempo morto e outros tempos: trechos de um diário de adolescência e primeira mocidade (1975) the Brazilian writer Gilberto Freyre (1900-1980) comments social, political, cultural, religious and intellectual aspects of his country. This article will analyze the task complexity and the challenges faced during the process of translation like critical and theoretical act involving not simply the linguistics aspects. At the end, the emphasis will be put on the analysis of two macro aspects: syntax and punctuation, lexicon and note, where the translator appears with strategies and comment. The first one, as representative of Freyre’s style and the second one as representative to overcome the difficulties associated with the transposition of themes and words so distant from the Italian context.