Hands that dance and translate: poems in Brazilian sign language

abstract This research explores the poetry chest in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras) that has been a part of the history of the Brazilian deaf community. We use the chest as an image that alludes to a collection of treasures and antiques. In this framework, the sign-language poems reference the richness of the hearing-impaired community. The research question that guides this essay is how is sign language used in poems and which are its preferred themes? In other words, what do the poems say and how? Using these questions, the objective is to analyze the use of sign language and the privileged themes in selected poems. The methodology used for the development of the research is qualitative analysis. The essay considers the use of sign language by the hearing-impaired in sign-language poems. For this, we analyze two poems recorded on videos, with subsequent translation from Libras to Portuguese, in order to facilitate the description and analysis of the material and the register recurrences found in the poems. The essay shows that the poems analyzed relate to important themes in the deaf community, such as the training of the deaf (in “O balé das mãos” [The Hands Ballet]) and Libras interpreters (in “Dia dos intérpretes” [Interpreters’ Day]) and linguistically highlight forms of artistic production in sign language.