The portuguese language in the archive of Tommaso Cannizzaro: tools for translation

Abstract

While Tommaso Cannizzaro’s (1838-1921) work as a translator has been studied in more or less extensive works (Falcone, 1983; Corona, 2017; Santoro, 1999), little has been done on his relations with the Portuguese language, apart from a couple of general or exploratory contributions (Morabito, 1995; 2023). The aim of this article, after an initial mapping of the manuscript and bibliographic material in various collections (especially the two in Messina), is to give a glimpse of the strategies, instruments and means behind Cannizzaro’s translation process from Portuguese, by studying and analysing the tools used to overcome linguistic difficulties and problems: dictionaries and grammars, but above all letters, annotations, glossaries and drafts present in the collections, are just as many auxiliary instruments for observing the translation process and the degree of the
translator’s involvement in the mechanisms of the language. The epistolary relationship with Carlos
de Lemos therefore appears as a paradigmatic case (although not the only one) of the attempt to
develop linguistic knowledge, since from the relative manuscript documentation we can reconstruct Cannizzaro’s doubts and the respective clarifications, especially with regard to the lexicon. The central focus of the analysis is the translation of some “palavras duvidosas” found in both Lemos’ Georgica (1897) and Guerra Junqueiro’s Os Simples (1892), both of which are works that, in fact, show extensive traces of specialised language, relating to the rustic and country life of farmers. Lemos’ explanations of these words are not always exhaustive, and even less definitive, but they are even reworked by Cannizzaro, with the final version being subject to the “norme” (namely rhythmic) that he gave himself, rather than the concrete overcoming of linguistic problems.