Drinking in the Dark, Imitating under Bright Lights: A Comparative Study of Herberto Helder's "O Bebedor"

• Tom Stennett ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Oxford

     University of Oxford

     Oxford District, Reino Unido

     
• Localización: Comparative Critical Studies, ISSN 1744-1854, Vol. 16, Nº. 1, 2019, págs. 57-79
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • In this article, I compare two anthologies of unconventional poetic translations and their respective authors' practices as translators: Robert Lowell's Imitations (1961) and Herberto Helder's O Bebedor Nocturno (1968). In both cases, a diversity of distinct poetic voices becomes homogenized under a process whereby a plurality of cultures and poets are filtered through one translator, who manipulates their sources for their own political ends. Whereas the poets selected for Imitations represent a literary in-club of Lowell's canonical influences, the variety of non-European and marginal cultures that feature in O Bebedor Nocturno stand as a counterpoint to the nationalist and isolationist culture of Portugal's dictatorship, the New State.