In Praise of Treason: Translating Calabar

Taking as a starting point Oswald de Andrade's concept of anthropophagy as a metaphor for cross-cultural interactions, this article examines some of the issues involved in translating (or adapting to a different cultural environment) a text that is itself a cannibalisation. Buarque and Guerra's play Calabar: In Praise of Treason (Editora Civilizao Brasileira), originally published in 1973, was rewritten in 1979, adapting to the new socio-political climate under which it was to be staged. The writers make use of a number of intertextual sources in order to create a text that demands constant watchfulness of their reader-translator-reader. Introducing this important Brazilian play to Anglophone audiences, this article moves on to explore some of the more practical aspects of translation in general and, in particular, of translating a political stage musical. Drawing on post-colonial theories of translation (and from ideas contained in the play itself) the article makes the case for the ubiquity and indeed necessity of treason as tool in such interactions.