Machado de Assis’s The Turkish Slipper: Translation Revealing Its Narrative Workings

Resumen

When translating a literary work, the translator should analyze style, rhythm and the many resources used by the author in his creation. The short story The Turkish Slipper, by Brazilian author Machado de Assis, translated to English as part of the research project Literary Translation and its Unfoldings (UFRGS/IL, 2008) brings up many issues related to its style and tone, besides interesting revelations surrounding the pact developed between author and reader/translator. If, on the one hand, a translator must deal with cultural/period elements that are a challenge in his/her work, there are considerations to be made also concerning language and literary creation itself.