Translator’s Note to Adelaide Freitas’s
novel Smiling in the Darkness
By Katharine F. Baker, lead translator
"Call
me Isabel"
me Isabel"
Had
she wished, Adelaide Freitas could have opened her novel Smiling in the
Darkness with this sentence in English, because as a scholar of Herman
Melville’s epic Moby-Dick she knew the famous line "Call me Ishmael"
that opens its first chapter.
she wished, Adelaide Freitas could have opened her novel Smiling in the
Darkness with this sentence in English, because as a scholar of Herman
Melville’s epic Moby-Dick she knew the famous line "Call me Ishmael"
that opens its first chapter.
And
just as Melville’s mysterious survivor Ishmael relates his account of Captain
Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of the whale that had severed his leg, so too Isabel
narrates Smiling in the Darkness about her mother’s struggles to avenge
the amputation by her own father of her dreams and of the only family lifestyle
she’d known.
just as Melville’s mysterious survivor Ishmael relates his account of Captain
Ahab’s obsessive pursuit of the whale that had severed his leg, so too Isabel
narrates Smiling in the Darkness about her mother’s struggles to avenge
the amputation by her own father of her dreams and of the only family lifestyle
she’d known.
Notably,
both narrators’ names share most of the same letters – I-S-A-E-L – and in the
same order. Further, in Smiling in the Darkness, Isabel’s aptly-named
emigrant grandfather Fontes was the font of his family’s tribulations for
decades to come, starting in the 1920s after a visit to his native Azores to
find a bride to marry and take back to Massachusetts.
both narrators’ names share most of the same letters – I-S-A-E-L – and in the
same order. Further, in Smiling in the Darkness, Isabel’s aptly-named
emigrant grandfather Fontes was the font of his family’s tribulations for
decades to come, starting in the 1920s after a visit to his native Azores to
find a bride to marry and take back to Massachusetts.
As a
self-made man, Manuel Fontes prospered and advanced in New Bedford, while his uneducated wife kept
their home, bore his children, and turned a blind eye to his adulteries in
return for an increasingly wealthy life and the respectability of their
marriage’s false façade.
self-made man, Manuel Fontes prospered and advanced in New Bedford, while his uneducated wife kept
their home, bore his children, and turned a blind eye to his adulteries in
return for an increasingly wealthy life and the respectability of their
marriage’s false façade.
Then
disaster struck when one of Fontes’ mistresses insisted he evict his wife and
children from his mansion, and install her there; his family returned to their
native village on northeastern São Miguel.
This parallels Hagar and Ishmael’s being expelled by Abraham except that,
unlike in the Bible, exile was to the middle of an ocean rather than a desert.
Over the decades this expulsion precipitated one family member’s career-ending
literal near-amputation as well as a succession of emotional ones – Freitas
even had Isabel use the term "amputate."
disaster struck when one of Fontes’ mistresses insisted he evict his wife and
children from his mansion, and install her there; his family returned to their
native village on northeastern São Miguel.
This parallels Hagar and Ishmael’s being expelled by Abraham except that,
unlike in the Bible, exile was to the middle of an ocean rather than a desert.
Over the decades this expulsion precipitated one family member’s career-ending
literal near-amputation as well as a succession of emotional ones – Freitas
even had Isabel use the term "amputate."
However,
unlike the whale’s victim, the wounded Mrs. Fontes was no obsessed Captain
Ahab. Although illiterate, she had learned of a wider modern world, progress
and humanism in America,
where women enjoyed greater legal and cultural rights than in Portugal.
unlike the whale’s victim, the wounded Mrs. Fontes was no obsessed Captain
Ahab. Although illiterate, she had learned of a wider modern world, progress
and humanism in America,
where women enjoyed greater legal and cultural rights than in Portugal.
Thus,
upon returning home she would lead a more independent life than the village
women who had never left, she would think more rationally and less superstitiously
about natural and physical phenomena (including frequent major seismic
activity), and behave more pragmatically in relation to societal rules.
She
went unchaperoned about town and occasionally to the island’s main city,
refused to wear the widow’s weeds expected of divorcées, capably husbanded her
own money, refused to be cowed as others were by authority figures like the
schoolmaster or village priest, and dared to teach her grandchildren that God
lies within each person – a deity of tolerance and joy, not hellfire and
damnation.
upon returning home she would lead a more independent life than the village
women who had never left, she would think more rationally and less superstitiously
about natural and physical phenomena (including frequent major seismic
activity), and behave more pragmatically in relation to societal rules.
She
went unchaperoned about town and occasionally to the island’s main city,
refused to wear the widow’s weeds expected of divorcées, capably husbanded her
own money, refused to be cowed as others were by authority figures like the
schoolmaster or village priest, and dared to teach her grandchildren that God
lies within each person – a deity of tolerance and joy, not hellfire and
damnation.
It
was instead her daughter who – upon being suddenly stripped of her dreams of
studying to become a teacher, of having her own piano, pursuing her various
artistic inclinations, and generally living the wealthy lifestyle she’d known
in New Bedford – most keenly felt the consequences of the figurative
amputation, becoming as obsessed with her lost money and materialism as Ahab
had been with the whale that took his leg.
was instead her daughter who – upon being suddenly stripped of her dreams of
studying to become a teacher, of having her own piano, pursuing her various
artistic inclinations, and generally living the wealthy lifestyle she’d known
in New Bedford – most keenly felt the consequences of the figurative
amputation, becoming as obsessed with her lost money and materialism as Ahab
had been with the whale that took his leg.
After
marrying a local man and giving birth to five daughters (one of whom, the frail
tot Serafina, soon joined the seraphs) and a son, she found herself pregnant
again late in life, suffering complications and illness that necessitated
medical treatment as well as money to pay for it.
marrying a local man and giving birth to five daughters (one of whom, the frail
tot Serafina, soon joined the seraphs) and a son, she found herself pregnant
again late in life, suffering complications and illness that necessitated
medical treatment as well as money to pay for it.
However,
in a society still largely based on subsistence agriculture, hunting and
fishing, cash was scarce, so following daughter Xana’s difficult birth in late
October 1949 – only days after an airliner had slammed into massive nearby Pico
da Vara, killing all on board – and post-partum complications, the following
April ("the cruellest month") she decided to return to her native America long
enough to earn sufficient money from factory work to put her family on sounder
financial footing, leaving her children’s upbringing to their Papá and
both grandmothers.
in a society still largely based on subsistence agriculture, hunting and
fishing, cash was scarce, so following daughter Xana’s difficult birth in late
October 1949 – only days after an airliner had slammed into massive nearby Pico
da Vara, killing all on board – and post-partum complications, the following
April ("the cruellest month") she decided to return to her native America long
enough to earn sufficient money from factory work to put her family on sounder
financial footing, leaving her children’s upbringing to their Papá and
both grandmothers.
However,
six months later her husband joined her in New England to earn even more money
for the family – and over the years she would successively force their two
eldest daughters to come work in American factories upon completing their basic
schooling on São Miguel (while their only son came to find a job for himself,
and obtain a visa card for his fiancée, since employment opportunities for both
in Azores had worsened).
six months later her husband joined her in New England to earn even more money
for the family – and over the years she would successively force their two
eldest daughters to come work in American factories upon completing their basic
schooling on São Miguel (while their only son came to find a job for himself,
and obtain a visa card for his fiancée, since employment opportunities for both
in Azores had worsened).
The
three youngest daughters were raised by their grandmothers, especially their
maternal Vovó. Many years passed before their parents felt financially
able to return home, Mamã believing she had at last vanquished her whale
of money and materialism.
three youngest daughters were raised by their grandmothers, especially their
maternal Vovó. Many years passed before their parents felt financially
able to return home, Mamã believing she had at last vanquished her whale
of money and materialism.
But
while still in America she’d
begun planning grandiose renovations to their house in the Azores, and aspired
to a status comparable to the birthright she’d long ago enjoyed in Massachusetts. She
insisted on outdoing any neighbor’s challenge to her economic supremacy; she
wanted her family to be the Joneses with whom no other villager could keep up,
let alone surpass, an obsession leading inevitably to further familial
"amputations."
while still in America she’d
begun planning grandiose renovations to their house in the Azores, and aspired
to a status comparable to the birthright she’d long ago enjoyed in Massachusetts. She
insisted on outdoing any neighbor’s challenge to her economic supremacy; she
wanted her family to be the Joneses with whom no other villager could keep up,
let alone surpass, an obsession leading inevitably to further familial
"amputations."
Like Moby-Dick‘s
Ishmael, the cipher Isabel lived to tell the tale. However, by her allusion in
English on the first page of the original Portuguese edition of Smiling in
the Darkness to the opening line "April is the cruellest month" from T.S.
Eliot’s classic poem "The Wasteland," Isabel signaled that she had survived to
become erudite, even if the other relatives lived in a familial and cultural
wasteland, damaged by the latest amputation for at least another generation.
Ishmael, the cipher Isabel lived to tell the tale. However, by her allusion in
English on the first page of the original Portuguese edition of Smiling in
the Darkness to the opening line "April is the cruellest month" from T.S.
Eliot’s classic poem "The Wasteland," Isabel signaled that she had survived to
become erudite, even if the other relatives lived in a familial and cultural
wasteland, damaged by the latest amputation for at least another generation.
Originally published by The Portuguese Tribune
KATHARINE F. BAKER’s translations include I No Longer Like Chocolates by Álamo Oliveira, The Portuguese Presence in California by Eduardo Mayone Dias, and My Californian Friends: Poetry by Vasco Pereira da Costa.
