Resumo:
In this work I tackle aspects related to translation and terminology of the so called social sciences and humanities – a kind of science whose language (let’s think about the words or terms, and concepts that build up this knowledge) seems to linger, just as in Guimaraes Rosa’s story, on the third bank of the river, that is, on its own flow. I am specially interested in the translation of ethnographic narratives, as a case of anthropological research within social sciences as a whole, and their translation (im)possibilities. In particular, I analyze an anthropological narrative written by anthropologist Ruth Behar, and its translation: Translated Woman: crossing the border with Esperanza’s Story. This book, which moves along a third margin between science and science fiction, portrays the life of a woman of Indian roots from rural Mexico while, at the same time, the author contests the originality of knowledge produced within ethnographic research. This thesis problematizes the notion of translation “equivalence” as understood by multilingual terminological works, and which constitutes the safe harbor where the category of ‘scientific text translation’ has chosen to dock, as a way to avoid the drift. When we think about social science translation and terminology, the idea of dwelling on Rosa’s third margin seems more suitable, an idea that leads us to think of a state of indefinition, incommensurability, on-going flow, transformation and equivocations. To develop the analyzes, I was initially motivated by the notion of perspectivism, which is central to the work of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro. From his theorizations, we adopt the notion of equivocations to think not only anthropological translation, but to think translation and terminology of social sciences as a whole. From this perspective, to translate is to accept that equivocations or misunderstandings are unavoidable; they should not be avoided but “emphasized and potentialized, as a way to widen the space that we imagine not to exist (or that conceals) between languages in contact”, thus accepting the challenge that represents to translate on the river flow, “across and around, out there in the river”. Could social sciences in translation – and specifically ethnographic narratives –lead to a type of scientific communication based on a terminology that does not silence alterities? To what extent would it be possible to think of translation “equivalences” that embrace new ways of understanding and lead to an epistemological enrichment? I believe that, by opening space to embrace those translation (im)possiblitites, this area of indeterminacy or third space in which the Other is always translated, it is possible to shed light into the complexities of translation of this Other, and to start to understand the differences as constitutive of dialogue and (in)comprehension.


Palavras-chave: Behar, Ruth, 1956-. Translated woman - Traduções; Tradução e interpretação - Terminologia; Análise do discurso narrativo; Sociolinguística; Equívoco (Linguística).