BOCAGE AND FILINTO: TWO WAYS OF TRANSLATING CLASSICS

Abstract

The different Bocage and Filinto Elisio's stylistic modulation in translating the Latin epic poet Lucan (1st Century AD) expresses two different practices between Lusophone literary translation from the XVIII century. Each one of these poets offers in their own versions of Lucan a singular aesthetic result: Bocage privileges the target language and seeks to accommodate the Latin to the laws of naturalness, clarity and simplicity under which he himself practiced poetry; Filinto Elisio looks for a more literal translation to the Latin poet, preserving elements of the source text at both the lexical and syntagmatic level, closely following the peculiar difficulties and obscurities of the Lucan's poem. These two ways of translating reflect literary and aesthetic aspects, already identified by Garrett, which later became known as Elmanismo and Filintismo.