How to read and why retranslate narratives from the past? La Condamine's travel report on the Amazonas river

Abstract

The present work consists of the commented retranslation of some excerpts from the work of Charles-Marie de La Condamine (1745), Relation abrégée d'un voyage fait dans l'intérieur de l'Amérique méridionale. Depuis la côte de la mer du Sud, jusqu'aux côtes du Brésil & de la Guiane, en descendant la riviere des Amazones, report read at a public assembly of the Academy of Sciences on April 28, 1745 and published in the same year by the publishing house Libraire la Veuve Pissot in Paris. At the same time, he poses the question of how to read a report from the past and the reasons that lead to retranslating a narrative crossed by prejudices about the original peoples. Thus, I initially intend to reflect on the notion of anachronism (Loraux, 1992), and then reflect on the concept of retranslation (Faleiros & Mattos, 2017). Finally, I will discuss some solutions of my translation by confronting it carried out by the publisher of the Federal Senate, entitled Viagem na América Meridional descending the Amazon river (La Condamine, 2000), published in 2000 in the collection “O Brasil seen by foreigners”, without indication of a translator.