Os sons que uma porta produz

Estás a ver um filme em casa. Não é na tua língua materna, mas consegues a entender a maior parte do diálogo e a seguir o enredo.

Passas o rato até ao canto do ecrã. Provavelmente não precisas delas, mas, mesmo assim, ligas nas legendas ocultas.

Com esse clique, o mundo cresce-se. Todos os ruídos produzidos pelos objectos no filme, todos os sons que não são diálogos falados, são agora mostrados em palavras. Cada som é associado ao verbo adequado.

A maior parte deles são verbos que nunca tinhas aprendido. As portas têm um vocabulário particularmente grande. Já conheces a frase PORTA FECHA quando aparece nas legendas ocultas, mas PORTA RANGE só faz sentido quando ouves o ruído que coincide, mais ou menos, com as palavras no ecrã.

PORTA APITA é ainda melhor porque o verbo apitar e sinónimo de assobiar, mas também de buzinar (em veículo). Em ingles, a tua língua materna, estes dois sentidos necessitam verbos diferentes. Assobiar é traduzido com whistle e buzinar com beep ou honk.

PORTA APITA é um momento em que as duas línguas divergem. Consegues ver o espaço entre as duas. Consegues ficar nesta espaço que é como o espaço entre a cortina e a janela.

Com agradecimento à série da RTP Emília, realizada por Filipa Amaro e com a participação de Beatriz Maia e Catarina Rebelo.

Comments

Phatic rhythm

My boss likes to talk. He doesn’t need an interlocutor, he needs an audience. As there’s not much call to respond during these daily discourses it’s possible to pay attention to how he structures his speech. Linguistics uses the term phatic communication to describe speech that has a social function rather than an informative one. The Open University describes phatic openings to conversations as an ‘invaluable means of establishing relations before getting down to the real purpose of the encounter’. Here are some of the phatic openings that my boss and other colleagues use (I live in Portugal so these phrases are in Portuguese; I've put an approximate translation in brackets after each one): Eh pá (Hey), Pá (Hey), Olha (Look), Ora bem (Well then), Pronto (Ready), É assim (It’s like this). These are often the first thing uttered during an exchange. They request the other person’s attention and signal that things are ready to roll. They mean Please listen to me; I have somethi...

Apple tree is the best translation for ameixoeira

I have been completing first drafts of the last few poems in Aberto todos os dias by João Luís Barreto Guimarães. In my experience, translating poetry involves a negotiation between sense and sound. The words I choose need to communicate a meaning close to the Portuguese original, and also a similar rhythm and sound patterning. There’s some adjusting to be done: swapping a word for a synonym with one extra syllable, or with one less. Swapping a word for a synonym whose vowel sounds complement an existing pattern in the line. It reminds me of being a dressmaker making small tucks or opening seams in a garment to get the best fit. The acrostic is a literary form where such subtle alternations are inadmissible. Guimarães’s poem 'Introdução à poesia' ('Introduction to poetry') describes a group of fruit trees planted so that the first letter of each spells out the word CALMA (in English, CALM): Cerejeira, Ameixoeira, Limoeiro, Macieira, Ameixoeira. Translating this list ...

a o a the the the

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