Reports on the Franciscan Missions in 19th Century Amazonia: La Provincia delle Amazzoni, de Giuseppe Coppi

Abstract

Relations between Italy and Brazil have existed for centuries, and
have been studied, from different points of view, in different disciplines
such as history, anthropology and geography, in addition to Translation
Studies. Commented translation has gained more and more space within this
area, for clarifying to readers aspects of the translated work and the cultural
and linguistic issues involved in the translation process, thus establishing
the connection between the source text and the target culture (ALEXIS
NOUSS, 2010). The chosen text is entitled La provincia delle Amazzoni,
and was published in the Bollettino della Società geografica italiano, in
Florence, in 1885, written by Giuseppe Coppi, with notes by Doctor G.A.
Colini. The section selected for this collection, dedicated to travel reports,
draws attention to some aspects that are worth presenting to the readers,
since knowledge about society, history and culture of the time become
essential for the elaboration of the final product, the translation. Here comes
our active role of the translator, as a mediator, of those who live between
cultures, creating not only bridges, but indissoluble bonds. (ZILLY, 2000).
The objective of this work is to identify whether and how the strategies used
in this proposal for an Italian translation of La Provincia delle Amazzoni
were satisfactory. General observations were made about the text itself,
such as, for example, in relation to the audience, the narrative, the style, the
syntax and the lexicon. It is possible to say that the new text we have written
presents, as its main characteristic, a certain Brazilian Italianness.