O Meu Pé de Laranja-Lima

22 Maio 2017, 14:00 • David Alan Prescott

Analysis of text from the novel O Meu Pé de Laranja-Lima by José Mauro de Vasconcelos. The Christmas scene. Explanation of difficulties of translating -- in a novel -- an extremely complex intercultural situation. "Christmas" would apparently be an easy matter to translate between two languages based on exactly the same Judaeo-Christian history and cultural and religious values. Yet basic behaviour differences such as the eating of plum pudding with flaming brandy and pink custard on the 25th in the afternoon as compared to eating squid and salt fish on the 24th in the evening mean that the translation requires avoidance, approximation or explanation.