The kleptomaniac translator: a borgean reflection on Dezso Kosztolányi’s short story

Abstract

My purpose, within this work, is to establish a parallel between literature and the idea of originality, through the lens of translation. Therefore, I analyse the short story ‘O tradutor cleptomaníaco’ (2016), from the Serbian author Dezso Kosztolányi. As my analysis framework, I bring some of the brief short-stories and essays by Jorge Luis Borges published in the following compilations: História universal da infâmia (1982), Outras inquisições (2007), Ficções (2007), O Aleph (2008), and ‘O livro de areia’ (2009). Besides this books, I also rely on Italo Calvino’s short-story ‘A memória do mundo’ (2007). The common ingredient justifying these sources’ selection, and which guides the discussion over the translator’s task, refers to memory, genesis, and (re)birth. Moreover, with the concept of original myth as the ontological backbone interconnecting these texts, I analyse if and how O tradutor cleptomaníaco (Kosztolányi, 2016) may contribute to such reflection on originality. Final results guide us to a concept of translation that, essentially, imply a necessary reduction – condensing meaning within the other meaning built by the individual interpretation of the reader translator.