Bridging Guyanese and Brazilian Literature, Part 2

Feb 07, 2010 Features / Columnists, Guyanese Literature

(Extract of an interview with Prof. Miguel Nenevé Georgetown, Guyana, January 2010. Nenevé is Assistant Professor of English at the University of Rondonia, Brazil. He was visiting professor at the University of Texas, USA, visiting professor at York University, Canada, where he did his Ph. D. on Canadian Literature. He has to his name two collections of short stories and one collection of poems. At present, he is visiting professor at the University of Guyana where he is working on a project titled, ‘Voices from the Border: Guyanese Literature from post-colonial perspective.)

By Petamber Persaud

Petamber Persaud (PP): Still on the subject of translation. Let’s turn our attention to Pauline Melville’s ‘The Ventriloquist’s Tale’ and its translation into Portuguese ‘A História do Ventriloquo.’
Miguel Nenevé (MN): This is interesting. I went to Lisbon on a conference and presented a paper on translation, mis-translation and failure of translation. Melville´s ‘The Ventriloquist´s Tale’ is a rewriting of the Brazilian work ‘Macunaima’. However Melville read ‘Macunaima’ in English, not in the original Portuguese. So, she had to use the (mis)translated text.
And it is interesting that the Brazilian translator of the ‘The Ventriloquist´s Tale’ seems to ignore that ‘The Ventriloquist´s Tale’ is somehow based on a Brazilian work…. Melville, one can say, rewrote ‘Macunaima’ in a postmodern way. The narrator of the novel, for example is saying ‘I am a liar so don’t trust me.’ Or, quoting: ‘ We, in this part of the world, have special veneration for the lie and all its consequences and ramifications. We treat lie seriously …’ Besides, the narrator says that his camouflage is a required skill for the Amerindian. So, it is like saying, do not trust what you hear, or what I tell you. It is a translation of a translation ……or it is camouflage…
PP: I think Melville covered that in the prologue …
MN: Yes and we can say that, thinking in this way, Melville´s work is a translation of a translation…Because she read Mario de Andrade in translation done by E. A. Goodland. (And Mario de Andrade himself translated Koch-Grunberg´s book on the Pemon culture and the myth of Makonaima.)
PP: So the translator [Goodland] lived for a long time in Guyana?
MN: Yes, as far as I know, E. A. Goodland, he was working for a company in Guyana when he got acquainted with and later translated, Mario de Andrade´s work. It is funny for example that the expression, repeated many times in the original, ‘Ai que preguiça’ which could be translated as ‘Aw such a laziness!’ or ‘Oh, I am lazy’ was translated into English as ‘what a ——— life.’ And Melville keeps this expression ‘what a ——— life’. More interesting than this is that the Brazilian translator of Melville translated as ‘Ah, que saco de vida’ which is very far from ‘Ai que preguiça’. So the Brazilian translator just ignored the connection between ‘Macunaima’ and ‘The Ventriloquist´s Tale’.
PP: This came out in the Prologue of ‘The Ventriloquist’s Tale’.
MN: What a ——— life! Melville took the translation. We can say that Mario de Andrade´s translator was thinking about Guyana as we can see in another example: In Portuguese we have ‘Port wine from Minas Gerais’. Minas Gerais is a state in North-eastern Brazil. But in the English version one reads: ‘Correia Genuine Spanish port from Georgetown’. Why he translated Minas Gerais into Georgetown and why he inserted Correia, are very good questions.
PP: So he translated with a Guyanese audience in mind
MN: Exactly. And he dedicated the translation to Edwina Melville, a relative of Pauline Melville.
PP: What about the missing pieces of Makonaima from the original German by Koch- Grunsburg
MN: I have not read the whole book by Theodor Koch-Grunberg (‘Von Roraima Zum Orinoco’, published in 1924). It is interesting that this German ethnologist or anthropologist is considered a good contributor to the study of South America’s indigenous people, in particular the Pemon people in the Amazon region (Venezuela, Brazil and Guyana). However, he also depended on translators to write his book. And Mario de Andrade, in his turn, translated only what was of his interest.
PP: We should ask Pauline [Melville] if she had seen those missing pieces. But this doesn’t take away – this translation of a translation – this does not take away from Melville’s effort, her perspective, her arrangement ….
MN: I think the book is excellent. The book in fact warns the reader about (mis) translation or failure in translation. The boy Bla-Bla (a character in ‘The Ventriloquist´s Tale’), for example, dies because of a failure in translation. The American, working for an oil company in Guyana said Chofoye, trying to warn the boy against explosion. He thought it was the work for explosion. As the narrator of the novel says ‘the stupid Americans didn´t even realise the boy spoke English and that we have different languages anyway’ (343-44). So Melville´s book is a little about that too, it carries the message : Don´t trust the teller, don´t trust the translator…But she tells a very nice story, from the Amerindians’ perspective, in fact revealing many perspectives from which one can tell the story.…
PP: In oral literature, this is what happens – a story can be enhanced, embellished with each telling, perhaps to suit the audience, the time, and place…..as long as the story remains in orality, it is true but the moment, it is written down, it becomes fiction – remember that part?
MN: Yes… and the narrator (of ‘The Ventriloquist´s Tale’) says that his grandmother did not like the writing, she trusted the oral, not the written story. The narrator´s mother says that ‘all writing is fiction’.
PP: Despite it all, we are happy now that we have the original (of Makonaima myth) in German, then the translation in Portuguese and then from Portuguese to English and now the story is extended by Melville….
MN: Yes. Melville in a postmodern way… she reveals that there are many positions from which one can interpret a story. Even the myth of Makonaima is retold from many views.
PP: So we must thank our literary ancestors (Koch-Grunberg, Mario de Andrade, E. A. Goodland) for making this nexus between Brazilian and Guyanese literature…you need to come again to talk about translation, mis-translation and failure of translation…
MN: Yes, thank you. It is a pleasure for me to discuss this connexion between Guyana and Brazil in literature.
PP: I hope your stay here is very rewarding.
MN: Thank you. It is really rewarding.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@ yahoo.com
What’s happening:
· You are invited to the launch of the third collection of poems, ‘Sacred Silence’, by Janet Naidu, tomorrow, Monday February 8, 2010, at the Umana Yana, Kingston, at 1730 hours (5:30 pm)