REGIONAL LEXICON AND THE UNTRANSLATABLE IN THE SPANISH TRANSLATION OF CHOVE NOS CAMPOS DE CACHOEIRA, BY DALCÍDIO JURANDIR

Abstract

This article is the result of the research project “Translating Dalcídio Jurandir's  Chove nos Campos de Cachoeira, into Spanish”. Jurandir's literary production, in terms of lexicon, is marked by regionalist particularities of the Amazonian Marajoara culture. In this context, lexicon plays a central role in the exclusive representation of the landscape and local imagery. In Spanish translation, preserving these elements poses a significant challenge, as the process requires not only the search for lexical equivalences but also the maintenance of meanings, contexts, and cultural references that do not find direct correspondence in the target language. Given these lexical-semantic challenges, this article presents the results of the translation of chapters 1, 2 and 3 of Chove nos Campos de Cachoeira, and discusses how lexicon was used to maintain the marks of regionalism and how we deal with untranslatability. Considering the book's strong regional character and the cultural implications of translation, this work is based on the concepts of social translation proposed by Severi and Hanks (2014) and specific cultural items by Aixelá (2013). Finally, this work engages with the dialogue between closely related cultures and languages – Portuguese and Spanish – expanding reflections on how such similarities and differences influence translation choices. By investigating these issues, we aim to enrich our understanding of the role of translation as a cultural bridge, especially in contexts marked by strong regional specificity.