Pierre Menard as Logocentric Translator: A reappraisal of Rosemary Arrojo's analysis of “Pierre Menard, Autor del Quijote”

Artigo publicado na Cadernos de Tradução (37.2, 2017). O abstract e o resumo estão reproduzidos abaixo. O texto integral (com uma correção a ser feita abaixo) pode ser consultado aqui e aqui.

Abstract: This article revaluates Brazilian theorist Rosemary Arrojo’s reading of “Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote”, by Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, proposing that her claims might be excessive, and calling into question the extent to which “Pierre Menard” can be read as a piece on translation. The first section briefly sketches deconstruction’s view on language and Arrojos’ own work; the second summarizes Arrojo’s analysis as contained in Oficina de tradução; the third exposes its limitations: its allegorical nature, its drawing upon a problematically amalgamating take on reading, interpretation and translation, the story’s difficult alignment with certain logocentric tenets and internal limitations of logocentrism’s take on language; the final section evaluates the role of George Steiner’s commentary on the short story as formative of the opinion that “Pierre Menard” is about translation.

Keywords: Jorge Luis Borges; “Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote”; Rosemary Arrojo; logocentrism; George Steiner

Resumo: Este artigo reavalia a leitura feita pela teórica brasileira Rosemary Arrojo do conto “Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote”, do escritor argentino Jorge Luis Borges; propõe que suas conclusões sobre o conto podem ser excessivas, e questiona até que ponto o conto pode ser lido como uma obra sobre tradução. A primeira seção esquematiza brevemente a visão da desconstrução sobre a linguagem, e o trabalho de Arrojo; a segunda resume a análise que faz Arrojo do conto, conforme aparece em seu Oficina de tradução; a terceira expões suas limitações: sua natureza alegórica, seu embasamento em uma problemática amálgama entre leitura, interpretação e tradução, as dificuldades em se alinhar o conto aos pressupostos centrais do logocentrismo e as contradições internas do logocentrismo; a seção final avalia o papel de um comentário de George Steiner para a formação da opinião de que o conto versa sobre tradução.

Palavras-chave: Jorge Luis Borges; “Pierre Menard, autor del Quijote”; Rosemary Arrojo; logocentrismo; George Steiner

Errata: Na página 59 da edição original, o 2o parágrafo foi acidentalmente abreviado. O texto integral do parágrafo segue abaixo:

This self-same vision of translation as interpretation or reading will underlie the fifth and sixth chapters of her Oficina de tradução, in which she reviews poetic translations and proposes translation exercises (1986/2007, pp.46-75). In her chapters devoted to theory, in an exercise which tackles Stanley Fish’s notion of horizon of interpretation, Arrojo uses William Carlos William’s famously synthetic “This is just to say” to demonstrate that translation of the text varies as it is viewed as a note or a poem (1986/2007, pp.32-3); regarded as a poem, the translation of plums into Brazilian Portuguese becomes a trouble-source (1986/2007, pp.33-5): what type of meaning would really be at stake here? The external referent (i.e. a class of things in the real world, identified as fruits and referred to as plums)? The sensible properties of plums? Its socio-economic connotations (price, frequency and habits of consumption within a given community, which may be as small as mid-1930s Rutherford, New Jersey [p.35] or encompass all readers of Western Literature)? Its symbolism (allusion to sensual pleasure or transgression)? Its intertextual value (reference to the fruit as opened or veiled reference to fruits previously mentioned in the history of Western Literature)? The meaning to be thus translated is that which the translator generates as reader, constructed along the process of making sense of the poem.