O VOO POÉTICO DE "AS AVES"

UMA LEITURA CRÍTICA DA TRANSCRIAÇÃO DE "AS AVES", DE ARISTÓFANES POR PAUL MULDOON

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the transcreation of Aristophanes’ play The Birds (414 a. C.) by the Irish poet Paul Muldoon. The methodology to achieve this objective relies on the work of Lorna Hardwick (2000) concerning the reception of the classics as well as on the concepts of domestication and foreignization by Lawrence Venutti (1997). According to Hellenistic scholars such as Gilbert Murray, The Birds dissonates from other plays in the work of Aristophanes because it does not portray the society directly. He considers it as a play of escape. Despite the desire to live among birds in nature, the main characters of the play bring to nature the Athenian way of living with them, which means they also bring politics and war. There is an inability to escape. Paul Muldoon revisits Aristophanes’ play and writes his version of The Birds (1999). Muldoon does not only translate the text of the play but transposes the play into the Northern Irish political context. The migratory birds from Athens now inhabit Belfast in the end of the conflict The Troubles (1968-1998). The poetic creation of Muldoon is a new play, alive and contemporary.