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English to Portuguese: Art in the West General field: Art/Literary Detailed field: Art, Arts & Crafts, Painting
Source text - English When, in the aftermath of World War I, Georg Lukács, one of the fathers of the Frankfurt School, wrote angrily of an “Aufhebung der Kultur” - an overthrowing, or abolition, of Western “Kultur” (the word in German has a resonance far beyond its English cognate) - he did so with a bitterness that reflected what any sensible person would have felt contemplating the ruins of empires, and the death of the Romantic dream that had propelled European art, culture, and politics from Goethe on. It was as if all of Germany had turned into a Caspar David Friedrich painting, except that rather than contemplating Nature, or Infinity, or God, the solitary wanderer stares instead into an abyss.
Does he? In the American composer Charles Ives’s enigmatic musical essay for strings, woodwind quartet, and solo trumpet “The Unanswered Question” - first paired with “Central Park in the Dark” as “Two Contemplations” (1908) - a lone trumpet insistently poses the “perennial question of existence” in a five-note figuration against a serene string backdrop and an increasingly agitated series of outbursts from the woodwinds, who stand in for us quizzical, quarrelsome mortals. But despite the querulous nature of the woodwinds’ chattering argumentation, the chordal strings - the timeless music of the spheres - never waver in whatever cosmic certainty they are expressing, nor does the trumpet cease repeating its relentless “idée fixe”. You can practically hear the piece’s three independent strands as background music for the Caspar David Friedrich painting above, but you will listen in vain for an answer.
In one sense, “Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer” (The Wanderer above the Sea of Fog) is a static picture: a solitary man, seen from behind, stands high atop a mountain, dressed in early-nineteenth century hiking garb, walking stick in hand, and gazing out across an Alpine landscape, its peaks partially obscured by clouds. Ah, but what narrative is contained herein? That the artist leaves up to the viewer to supply: who is this man? How did he get there? Was the ascent arduous? Did he come to find solace or release? One step farther and he must certainly plunge to his death - where does his next step take him?
Translation - Portuguese Quando, após encerrada a Primeira Guerra Mundial, Georg Lukács, um dos originadores da Escola de Frankfurt, escreveu raivosamente sobre uma “Aufhebung der Kultur” - uma derrubada, ou abolição, da “Kultur” ocidental (a palavra tem em alemão uma ressonância muito além do alcance de seu cognato inglês) - ele o fez com uma amargura que refletia o que qualquer pessoa sensata teria sentido ao contemplar as ruínas de impérios e a morte do sonho romântico que havia impulsionado a arte, a cultura e a política dos tempos de Goethe em diante. Foi como se toda a Alemanha se tivesse tornado uma pintura de Caspar David Friedrich, exceto pelo fato de que em vez de contemplar a Natureza, ou a Infinidade, ou Deus, o viajante solitário fita o abismo.
Ele o faz? No enigmático ensaio musical do compositor americano Charles Ives, concebido para cordas, quarteto de instrumentos de sopro de madeira e solo de trompete “A pergunta sem resposta” - cuja primeira aparição fez par com “O Central Park no escuro”, com o título “Duas contemplações” (1908) - um trompete solitário coloca insistentemente a “perene questão da existência”, numa figuração de cinco notas contraposta a um sereno pano de fundo propiciado pelas cordas e a uma sequência cada vez mais agitada de rompantes dos instrumentos de sopro, que representam a nós, mortais zombeteiros e brigões. Mas, apesar da natureza queixosa da argumentação tagarela dos instrumentos de sopro de madeira, os instrumentos de corda, a música atemporal das esferas, nunca vacilam na certeza cósmica, seja qual for, que estão expressando, nem tampouco o trompete para de repetir sua “idée fixe” inexorável. Podem-se praticamente ouvir os três fios condutores independentes como música de fundo para a pintura de Caspar David Friedrich mencionada acima, mas em vão se buscará uma resposta ao ouvi-los.
Em um determinado sentido, “Der Wanderer über dem Nebelmeer” (O viajante sobre o mar de neblina) é uma figura estática: um homem solitário, visto por trás, fica de pé no topo de uma montanha alta, vestido em trajes de excursão do começo do Século XVIII, andando com um porrete na mão e olhando através de uma paisagem alpina, com picos parcialmente obscurecidos por nuvens. Ah, mas que narrativa está aí contida? Isso o artista deixa a cargo do espectador: quem é este homem? Foi árdua a sua escalada? Ele veio para encontrar consolo ou liberação? Basta um passo em frente para que ele certamente mergulhe para a morte - aonde seu próximo passo o leva?
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Bachelor's degree - Federal University of Pernambuco
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Bio
I have an excellent command of both English, which I am thoroughly proficient in, and of my native language. I lived in the United States for over four years, having both written and published my PhD dissertation in Philosophy.
Two translations of mine have gone on to be published in academic journals: a translation of some sections of John Stuart Mill’s “A System of Logic” and of William Clifford’s “The Ethics of Belief”.
I am currently translating a wide array of John Stuart Mill’s texts thus far unavailable in Portuguese. Upon completion, this will amount to a series of at least six volumes. The first one is already in print.
I translated Miron Dolot’s book “Executed by Hunger” into Portuguese for the Brazilian publishing house CEDET, and I am currently working on the translation of Leszek Kolakowski’s “Main Currents of Marxism” for the same publishers.
