Traduzindo <i>One Art</i>

The present commentary problematizes the translation that Paulo Henriques Britto made of the famous poem by Elizabeth Bishop (One Art), and describes a translation process based on an alternative conception of “meaning” – one that is not primarily focused on the notions of “total aesthetic effect” and “poetic experience”. The proposed translation explores not what the poem – allegorically, rhetorically or meta-textually – represents, but instead its performativity, that is, the ability to effectively make worlds. This performative meaning is sought in the very construction of Bishop’s villanelle, especially in the use of the vocatives “practice” and “Write it!”.