Through the Doors that Cats See, the Poem Will Arrive: Cixous and Lispector in Translation

From the reading of the afterword to the Brazilian translation of A chegada da escrita (2024), it is possible to perceive that this work bears a resemblance to the rhythm of Água viva (1973), by Clarice Lispector, in a sort of a supplement to what the writing voice states to be the elements that dictate its pace, namely, the lalemã, the recalling of the German mother tongue as a chant, babbling, onomatopoeia. From the encounter between the French text “La venue à l’écriture”, from 1976, Clarice’s text and the translated text, this essay aims to reflect upon the important movements of Cixous’s writing that hinder the text to be fixed in a finished writing, relaunching the writing in what it will do, like parataxis shapes the intersected instant and defies casualty - the cause is a matter of the past, says the voice from Água viva that desires the present moment that does not cease to die and to be born again. To the book still to be written, Cixous calls - poem. And calling does not mean naming. Calling means to remember the spark of a dead or an imminent fire. Calling means to appeal, to announce, to go towards, placing writing as a point of arrival, as a starting point, in translation, in life, how to receive it? In more than one language, calling the poem that will spell Cixous’s language, the passing place of Clarice’s language.

Keywords:
Hélène Cixous; Clarice Lispector; translation and poetry