Choosing not to translate

Translating involves all kinds of risks, simply because decisions have to be taken constantly, especially with a view to acceptance by readers, editors, religious leaders and political powers. This is exemplified by the first Portuguese version of Robinson Crusoe, where many of Defoe’s criticisms of Catholicism were simply omitted, resulting in a high degree of “zero translation”. The biography of the translator, Henrique Leitão, suggests that these omissions were due to selfcensorship, since he had experienced previous conflict with the Portuguese Inquisition.