The work pretends to review specific problems linked with the translation of oral literature in view of the theories of discourse centered analysis, performance and poetic translation. Up until the last 30 years, oral texts, including such genres of mythology, folklore, legends, were treated as fixed texts, without consideration of the poetic mechanisms that mark the oral narration. The work reviews the current theories and problems under debate, which view texts as emerging through specific cultural performances and with specific aesthetic markers that must be included in transcribing and translating such texts. The problem of translation of narrative parallels the general discussions in anthropology about anthropological writing and the fixation of social interaction.
narrative; orality; performance; poetics; translation