Paulo Leminski's creative translation of Horaces carpe diem

Abstract

The present work studies and disseminates the “translation project” of the poet and translator from Curitiba Paulo Leminski, with a focus on the translations that he made of the Greco-Roman texts tradition. It can be seen in the reading of his biography and it can be often perceived in the subjects which attend his work that the author was a knower and disseminator of the Latin Language and Literature. Originally studied by the author at the São Bento monastery located in the city of São Paulo, this ancient language was an important creative source revisited and rethought throughout his literary career. In addition to translations made directly from Latin, such as Ode I, 11, by Horace (1984) and Petronius’s Satyricon (1985), the work with Latin literary texts can also be found in pieces as Metaformose and Catatau. In this study, we will pay special attention to the translation made by the poet of Horaces’s Ode in its dialogue with the translation of the same poem by his friend and main theoretical reference, the poet Augusto de Campos. We will therefore highlight the main characteristics of each translation and the coincidences and differences between them, guided by the theory of translation as recreation, derived from the poundian ideals of make it new.