• The title of the chapter in Portuguese, a denúncia, can be translated as: the denunciation, the accusation, the exposure (of a secret), the disclosure, the complaint, the report, the indictment. Given the contents of the chapter, I’ve gone with the disclosure, which isn’t ideal, but is the best of what’s available as far as I can tell.
• The original says “é melhor que não comece a dizer missa atrás das portas”, which I translated as “it would be better if he didn’t start saying mass behind closed doors.” I’m reasonably sure that the expression atrás das portas means the same thing as behind closed doors, but as I said, only reasonably sure.
• In the original, the characters say without fail the equivalent of “brother Cosme”, “sister Glória” and “cousin Justina” when addressing one another. That to me sounds too strange in English, and I’ve translated the characters’ addressing one another more simply as “Cosme”, “Glória” and “Justina” respectively. Nevertheless, I don’t know for sure whether or not saying “brother Cosme” etc. would have sounded normal to people in Rio de Janeiro at the time, because if it didn’t, Machado de Assis would have meant for the form of address to sound strange.

• The first three words of the story are “Uma noite destas.” I’m really not sure how to translate that, whether that should be considered equivalent to on another ordinary night, it was one of those nights, on a night like this or, how I ended up translating it, one night not too long ago.
• The original says “Há livros que apenas terão isso dos seus autores; alguns nem tanto.” I translated autores as originators, which at first glance appears incorrect. Nevertheless, I think that’s closer to what’s meant here because an author of a book is usually referred to as an escritor in Portuguese, and it’s clear from the text that the poet from the train certainly was not the author of the book, as we would say in English, but he who created its title. Hence, originator, which leaves the question of authorship open.

That distrações raras is a strange one, though. Distrações could be distractions, amusements, oversights or, what I took it to mean, pastimes or recretional activities. I also added a verb to the sentence that stands verbless in Portuguese. Perhaps I inserted myself into the text unnecessarily, but I think the sentence standing as Few pastimes or Few recreational activities is too strange in English, which isn’t as kind on implied verbs or subject pronouns as Portuguese is.