Literary Translation, Immersion in Time and Space: The Literature of Ramon Llull (1232–1316)

Abstract

The act of translating is a spiritual incorporation into the world of the writer who has translated. The concept of understanding weighted by the fusion of horizons (Horizontverschmelzung) is fundamental to the translator’s aim to feel the historical-linguistic universe of the literary work in the most appropriate way possible. After this, the transfer of the original words and ideas to the translated language is a pondering process, in which the Past reemerges in all its verbal power. The aim of this work is to present the foundations of our translations (from old Catalan to Portuguese) and some examples taken from the Libre de contemplació en Déu (The Book of Contemplation in God, 1271-1274), one of the first vernacular literary works written by the Majorcan philosopher Ramon Llull (1232-1316).