Deviations ofreading as writing and translation: an interpretation of “O recado do morro” by João Guimarães Rosa

Abstract

The novella “O recado do morro” by Guimarães Rosa, from the cycle O corpo de baile, is “the story of a song in formation”, as stated by the author himself. This “song” unfolds itself on two levels, on two parallel texts: the narrative of the “message” and the “message” itself, each fulfilling itself through translation (mediation, transmission, decoding). On the one hand, the narrative deals with Pedro Orósio's salvation from the plot set by seven rivals, who intended to kill him, by acting at the exact right moment thanks to the decodification or translation of a message; on the other, it deals with the protagonist's identity formation, whose path spatially travelled corresponds to a path of inner improvement: by being able to translate the message, he changes from the condition of an ignorant man to master of his own destiny. In this article, this process of formation is treated as a translation, i.e., as a process of construction of an appropriate text interpretation.