Why does Amado repeat the word morte in the title of his novel A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro d'Água?

Question

The title of Jorge Amado's novel A Morte e a Morte de Quincas Berro d'Água (1959) has been translated in various ways:

• The Two Deaths of Quincas Wateryell,
• The Double Death of Quincas Water-Bray (Gregory Rabassa's translation),
• Die drei Tode des Jochen Wasserbrüller (literally "The three deaths of ...", German translation, 1991),
• Der Tod und der Tod des Quincas Wasserschrei (German translation by Luis Ruby, 2013),
• Les Deux Morts de Quinquin-la-Flotte (French translation by Georges Boisvert, 1971),
• La muerte y la muerte de Quincas Berro Dágua (Spanish),
• La doppia morte di Quincas l'acquaiolo (Italian).

In the above list of translations, only the second German translation and the Spanish translation repeat the word for "death"; the other translations use a word for "double" or a numeral instead. Brazilian Portuguese obviously has words for "two" and double, so it is hard to believe that the repetition of "morte" is accidental, in spite of the translations. Hence my question: is there a specific reason for the repetition of the word "morte" in the Portuguese title? If yes, what is that reason?

Answer 1

When I have read it (very long ago, and in yet another language), I parsed the title as

(A Morte) e (a Morte de Quincas Berro d'Água)

that is The Death in general, and some particular death. After all, if I am not mistaken, in the novel Quincas dies thrice, so two, or double, are definitely off.

That said, I don't know if my reading matches the Amado's intentions.