Manuel Odorico Mendes was a great Brazilian writer, who started his career as a politician when Brazil was still ruled by the Portuguese. In 1847, he translated the Aeneid, and decided to leave politics and move to Europe, where he could dedicate his time to the translation of classical literature. He also had access to books that he could not get in Brazil. In France, he published Eneida Brasileira, a version of the Aeneid in Portuguese, and then in 1858 a translation of all the works of Virgil. This was followed by his translation of the Homeric poems of the Iliad and the Odyssey, which was published after his death. His Iliad is the first translation of the work into Portuguese. He will call all his works “poetic translations” and will put forward the poetic effects found in Homer, trying to make them appear again in the Portuguese translation.
What is very interesting about this translator is that he was able to adapt his translation to the original work. Indeed, we can note in the Iliad and the Odyssey, many verses. This number can potentially be variable depending on the adaptation that one decides to adopt for his translation. This is the case of Odorico Mendes, who, in his translation of the Aeneid, made a smaller number of verses than the original version of Virgil. This is due to the fact that he thought it was imperative to adapt the language, especially for Portuguese, which he defined as a much more concise language than all the other languages that used the same rhythm and meter. Because of these different ideas, Manuel Odorico Mendes was always the target of strong criticism. His works have always been controversial, especially his versifications in the Iliad and the Odyssey. For example, Silvio Romero will use the following words to qualify the work of Odorico Mendes: “As for the translations of Virgil and Homer attempted by the poet, the harshest criticism of them is insufficient. Everything is false, artificial, extravagant, impossible. They are true monstrosities”.
The entire translation made by Mendes of the Odyssey can be read by following this link on ebooksbrasil.