WRITING AUTHORITY IN LATE MEDIEVAL ... - Cornell University

kneeling simply because he is an ox. This is an unacceptable position to the Portuguese text
which does not emphasize anything special about Nebuchadnezzar’s physical form, and so it
must translate the Middle English “wise” ‘form’ as “maneira” colloquially ‘ability’ but literally
‘form,’ to in a sense keep Gower’s diction but to accommodate it to a more biblical position.
Why does the Portuguese choose to present Gower’s poem this way? Why does it go to
such length to erase Gower’s rather amusing take on a biblical narrative? After all, the
Portuguese translation has been described as “verbo pro verbum” ‘word for word’ if not always
“sensum pro sensum” ‘sense for sense,’ and so it seems faithfully to reproduce Gower’s text save
for the deviations introduced by cultural, linguistic, or erroneous interventions. 220 Portraying
Nebuchadnezzar as acting like a beast but not literally being one is more than a cultural change:
it is direct vindication of the biblical text and hermeneutic tradition which the Confessio
parodies. We could argue that somehow the Portuguese translator was both having a hard time
with the English and trying to adapt this tale for his audience’s cultural needs. However, I
believe there is a simpler explanation: the Portuguese intentionally manipulated Gower’s diction
to portray a different meaning from the story altogether. In other words, the translator not only
erroneously rendered a text in a different language, but he also wished to show that he had
altered it from its original.
The major clue for this interpretation is given precisely at the narrative point in which
both Jerome and Gower stress their differing takes on the king’s transformation. I quote the
Vulgate, the English Confessio, and Portuguese translation together:
220 Ibid. 77.
Cumque sermo adhuc esset in ore regis, vox de caelo ruit: Tibi dicitur Nabuchodonosor rex:
Regnum tuum transibit a te, et ab hominibus eiicient te, et cum bestiis et feris erit habitatio tua:
foenum quasi bos comedes, et septem tempora mutabuntur super te, donec scias quod dominetur
Excelsus in regno hominum, et cuicumque voluerit, det illud.
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