This site uses cookies.
Some of these cookies are essential to the operation of the site,
while others help to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used.
For more information, please see the ProZ.com privacy policy.
This person has a SecurePRO™ card. Because this person is not a ProZ.com Plus subscriber, to view his or her SecurePRO™ card you must be a ProZ.com Business member or Plus subscriber.
Affiliations
This person is not affiliated with any business or Blue Board record at ProZ.com.
English to Portuguese: An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish Detailed field: Philosophy
Source text - English Man is a rational animal-so at least I have been told. Throughout a long life, I have looked diligently for evidence in favor of this statement, but so far I have not had the good fortune to come across it, though I have searched in many countries spread over three continents. On the contrary, I have seen the world plunging continually further into madness. I have seen great nations, formerly leaders of civilization, led astray by preachers of bombastic nonsense. I have seen cruelty, persecution, and superstition
increasing by leaps and bounds, until we have almost reached the point where praise of rationality is held to mark a man as an old fogey regrettably surviving from a bygone age. All this is depressing, but gloom is a useless emotion. In order to escape from it, I have been driven to study the past with more attention than I had formerly given to it,
and have found, as Erasmus found, that folly is perennial and yet the human race has survived. The follies of our own times are easier to bear when they are seen against the background of past follies. In what follows I shall mix the sillinesses of our day with those of former centuries. Perhaps the result may help in seeing our own times in perspective, and as not much worse than other ages that our ancestors lived through
without ultimate disaster.
Translation - Portuguese O homem é um animal racional – pelo menos foi o que me ensinaram. No decurso de uma vida longa, procurei diligentemente indícios que apoiassem esta afirmação, mas até agora não tive a sorte de os encontrar, embora tenha percorrido vários países em três continentes. Pelo contrário, vi sempre o mundo mergulhar cada vez mais na loucura. Vi grandes nações, outrora líderes de civilização, transviadas por pregadores do disparate altissonante. Vi a crueldade, a perseguição, e a superstição, ganharem terreno, aos saltos, até quase chegarmos ao ponto em que por elogiar a racionalidade uma pessoa é tida por antiquada, como se, para seu infortúnio, tivesse sobrevivido a um tempo obsoleto. Tudo isto é deprimente, mas a tristeza é uma emoção inútil. A necessidade de a evitar levou-me a estudar o passado com maior atenção do que antes, tendo-me apercebido, como Erasmo, de que apesar de a loucura ser uma constante em todas as épocas, a humanidade sobrevive. Os excessos do nosso próprio tempo tornam-se mais toleráveis quando examinados contra o pano de fundo das loucuras passadas. Talvez o resultado deste esforço nos ajude a perspectivar o nosso próprio tempo, a vê-lo como não muito pior do que outras eras, que os nossos antepassados viveram sem chegar ao desastre final.
More
Less
Translation education
Other - British Council
Experience
Years of experience: 20. Registered at ProZ.com: Aug 2007.
Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, University of Lisbon.
CAE by the British Council of Lisbon.
3rd grade Piano Course in Setubal's Regional Conservatory.
1 year German in Goethe Institut, Lisbon.
Professional Course on Jewelry Techniques, CINDOR, Gondomar.
HTML / Internet Course, IPFEL, Lisbon.
Graphic Design Course, FLAG, Lisbon.
Workshop Manual Typography, ARCO, Almada.
Workshop Bookbinding, Potássio4, Lisbon.
Basic knowledge of Bulgarian and Russian.
Previous translations (book length) Eng-Pt:
Franklin Foer, Como o Futebol Explica o Mundo - Um Olhar Inesperado Sobre a Globalização, Palavra Editora, Lisboa, 2006.
Expertise