The Role of the (In)visible and the Secret in the Translation of Harryette Mullen s Muse & Drudge

This paper, based on Jacques Derrida’s thoughts in Des Tours of Babel, addresses the issue regarding the (in)visible in translation, by arguing that the latter, beyond the traditional conception of communication, produces a complex set of relations between the visible and the invisible, which highlights the values of the non-dit and the secret that take place in their relation to interpretation. This line of thought underpins the discussion of my translation of two poems from Muse & Drudge (1995), by the African-American poet Harryette Mullen, whose dense poetry displays un(expected) possibilities of meanings and associations that proliferate in translation. It is argued that every act of translation entails a relationship between that which is translated (and made visible or intelligible through this act) and that which remains invisible and secret by resisting a definitive translation, which, as such, requires further interpretations in search for intelligibility (or “visibility”). We analyze the extent to which such relation between the visible and the invisible takes part in the translation of the notion of blackness raised by Mullen’s poems and how her translated poetry dialogues with issues of reception in Brazilian culture.

Dilemas na tradução de Muse & Drudge (Musa E Mula), de Harryette Mullen: negritude, dissonância e miscigenação

This paper aims to discuss a project of translating part of the work Muse & Drudge, by the award-winning African-American poet Harryette Mullen, into Brazilian Portuguese, with focus on a single poem. In Muse & Drudge Mullen combines cultural critique with humor, lyricism and punning, which has unfolded the frontiers between cultural and racial identity, and has put into question the opposition between popular and high culture. This work analyzes to which extent the proposed translation produces a new set of intertextual relations that might culminate in “unexpected” meanings. It is a goal to understand how the effects of such “unexpected” meanings reveal the “encounter” between the so-called racial “black/white” dichotomy, predominant in the US culture, and the notion of “miscegenation” and “racial democracy” in Brazil.