L’adaptation de chanson dans l’album Coeur vagabond de Bïa. Une brise de Brésil

Abstract

Perle Abbrugiati’s article explores Coeur vagabond/Coraçao vagabundo, the fourth record by the French-Brazilian artist Bïa, released in 2006. The bilingual album comprises an equal number of Brazilian-Portuguese adaptations from French songs and French adaptations from Brazilian songs.
The aim of the present article is to identify the strategies applied in the translation of songs. To this end, the article’s author herself uses translation within the framework of a comparative approach, confronting Bïa’s translations with her own literal translations (not suitable to be sung) of the original lyrics. The objective is not to trace ‘mistranslations’ but to point out in how many different and intricate ways a translation can be faithful while being creative, and in what way and to what degree the song translator may take the liberty of ‘re-semantisation’.