'Leave the slave in her place'
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— Eu, senhor?! oh! por quem é, deixe a humilde escrava em seo lugar;
I, sir?! oh! for pity's sake, leave the humble slave in her place;
Isaura counters flattery with self-effacement — 'deixe a humilde escrava em seo lugar,' leave the humble slave in her place. She invokes the very hierarchy that oppresses her as a shield: by insisting on her lowliness she tries to place a social distance between them that his desire has collapsed. 'Por quem é' — for the sake of whoever you hold dear, for pity's sake — is a plea, and she is about to name whom: Malvina.
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A Escrava Isaura 9.29 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/escravaisaura/9.29/