Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Nov 5, 2018:

Thank you, Eduardo... ...at 4 AM, no less!

Eduardo Ramos Nov 5, 2018:

The story of one of the main characters of Amor de Perdição (Simão Botelho) is based on the life of the author's real uncle (Simão António Botelho). For a brief resume of the narrative, refer to this link https://www.passeiweb.com/estudos/livros/amor_de_perdicao. It never was my kind of literature but Camilo truly masters the language in a singular and almost unique way. Still, we don’t need to master the Portuguese as he did to understand that, because Camilo was so happy to find what he was looking for in the said old papers (for his book, written in the same jail where his uncle also was), he felt like it was his mission to make a beautiful evocation of (embellish, grace, etc.) his uncle’s memories as a reward/compensation for his *trágicas e afrontosas dores em vida tão breve.*

Well, at least this is the way I see it… But mind me not - 4 am over here, I might be wrong. G’night... :)

Oliver Simões Nov 5, 2018:

@Barbara The next two sentences after your quote seem to make a reference to some old papers from which he's trying to figure out his uncle's life. That's why I thought he might be referring to his uncle's memoirs. Not having read the book makes it hard to draw a conclusion. You're probably in a better position than most of us. Thank you, anyway. I pasted the two sentences below:

"Sabia eu que em casa de minha irmã estavam acantoados uns maços de papéis antigos, tendentes a esclarecer a nebulosa história de meu tio. Pedi aos contemporâneos, que o conheceram, notícias e miudezas, a fim de entrar de consciência naquele trabalho." - http://projectoadamastor.org/amor-de-perdicao-camilo-castelo...

Barbara Cochran, MFA (asker) Nov 5, 2018:

My Interpretation I think Camilo might have wanted to make the memory of his uncle seem fresh again.

Ana Vozone Nov 5, 2018:

@Oliveira I do not know. I only read this, and still think my interpretation is correct. https://books.google.pt/books?id=bNwNDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT5&lpg=PT5...

Oliver Simões Nov 5, 2018:

@Ana Actually, as I gave it a second thought, it appears that "memória" doesn't mean memory at all, it could be a reference to his memoir. Apparently, the uncle had a bad / difficult / short life and the narrator is now saying it's not his responsibility to enhance / boost / adorn his uncle's memoir, in other words, make it look better. Any thoughts on that? https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/memoir Perhaps Barbara could add some more context. I haven't read the book.

Ana Vozone Nov 5, 2018:

... a memória dele... means the memory people had of him (the uncle), and not what he (the uncle) could remember. The uncle was dead, from what I gather...

Eduardo Ramos Nov 5, 2018:

@ Oliveira Simões You said, "There are no absolutes in literary translation. To a great extent, literary interpretation is subjective. The context is not enough to see it otherwise. That's also what makes most sense from a semantic standpoint. See my note in the discussion board."

I am also a literary translator, and I do know there are no absolutes, but let me remind you (regarding the lack of context) that this is an excerpt from Amor de Perdição, of Camilo Castelo Branco, one of the best novelists of the Portuguese language (XIX century). So, my disagreement is not about your eventual free approach/perspective, and only occurs because (under any approach ... even if it was poetry) it is totally absurd (no offense intended) to translate *adornar-lhe a memória* as *refresh his memory / remind him* in this (very well known) paragraph of Camilo. Anyway, my intention was only to help the Asker. Actually, it was the 1st time I had to click on *disagree* as it was so obviously wrong... Well, back to work. Hope it helped, somehow... Cheers.

Oliver Simões Nov 5, 2018:

adornar I believe the correct translation will depend on our subjective interpretation of "adornar". Besides the obvious relationship with "adorn", "adornment", "embellishment", "adornar" is also used figuratively in the sense of enhancing, enriching or improving something:

adornar: (fig) enriquecer - https://dicionario.priberam.org/adornar

The website www.deChile.net states that "adornar" comes from Latin "ordinare", which means to "put each thing in its place". - http://etimologias.dechile.net/?adorno

Based on these findings, I added a second translation to my answer.