O PEQUENO PRÍNCIPE DE SAINT-EXUPÉRY: UMA LEITURA SEMIÓTICA DA TRADUÇÃO DO PORTUGUÊS PARA LIBRAS

Abstract

The present paper is an analysis of the intersemiotic translation of the Antoine de SaintExupéry's The Little Prince from Portuguese into Libras, made by the Accessibility of Public Libraries project, in the format of an audiovisual book. The general objective is to analyze literary and linguistic elements of the intersemiotic translation from Portuguese into Libras. The specific objectives are: to address the semiotic issues that are involved in this translation process, especially the semiotics of cultures, to expose technical aspects of video recording that can influence the composition of a text in Libras and to foster future research in the field. In the course of this analysis, the semiotics of cultures, complemented with the categories of the literary narrative, were used as theoretical support. The methodology for this analysis consisted of the following steps: a bibliographical survey, a thorough reading of the two texts (the Portuguese translation, translated by Dom Marcos Barbosa, and the translated audiovisual book in Libras); the identification of the linguistic aspects of the Libras that were incorporated in the translation; the identification of the adaptations of the literary aspects in Libras; the identification of the elements that keep the audiovisual book cohesive; and, finally, data analysis and discussion for the composition of the final paper. It was possible to infer throughout the whole process that Libras is not an isolated language, and that it is possible to bring elements of translation theories, literature theories and semiotics to dialogue with professionals that work with Libras. The analysis carried out emphasized that the professional team involved with the Accessibility in Public Libraries project, especially the translator, Felix Oliveira, focused on reaching the target audience, following the syntactic structures of Libras to the maximum, seeking in the spatial environment, in the organization of the audiovisual books, classifiers, non-manual expressions and even in the lexical choices the solutions that the audiovisual book became the most accessible possible to the Deaf. The project takes an intersemiotic look at reading, seeking to cover different types of readers and provide a new literary experience for these readers. From the investigation carried out in this paper, it was possible identify several elements that contribute to the translation reaching the target audience, the deaf, and some elements that deviate considerably from the Portuguese text. It is hoped that this paper will help others to reflect on the translation process itself by composing literary translations among the same language pair, multiplying this inclusive initiative.