Hi Ailish,

I wouldn't dare translating this sentence because I am not a native speaker. But here is my interpretation of the meanings and subleties in this sentence.

Mas seus pés tinham a milenar desconfiança da possibilidade ‘de pisar em alguma coisa que se mova -

This is a man who is afraid of taking his shoes off, a man who has always lived in cities, a man whose instincts and primeval feelings are buried under layers and layers of civilization (millenary). He is afraid of the contact with the earth, I imagine it as earth that is wet from the rain, somewhat muddy, and therefore squishes under your shoes as you walk. By extension, he is afraid of change, anything that is not clearcut and rigid, but rather moist, changing, hard to pin down.

os pés apalpavam a moleza suspeita daquilo que aproveita a escuridão para existir.

He is using his feet as hands to explore. (apalpar is a word used for touching with the hands). Darkness here is a tough one. 'Aproveita' means "use". There is also a "sneaky way" overtone in the way the earth uses darkness to exist. Maybe it rained the night before and this man is walking on earth that is wet from the dew and night showers (very common in Brasil)? So in this passage, Lispector points to the way darkness has a sneaky way of making itself felt and changing our stride, our stepping ground. Moleza has negative overtones, I don't think you could use softness here. It has something more "gooey".

Pelos pés ele entrou em contacto com esse modo de ceder e poder ser moldado que é por onde se entra no pior da noite: na sua permissão****.

Ceder here is something like "surrender", "give in", obviously he is talking about the earth that surrenders its firmness to the moistness brought on by darkness. The worst part of darkness is not being changed by it, but giving in to this change (permissão), authorizing this change and being molded by it, just like the earth is molded by our footprints. It gives in and lets itself be shaped by our feet, submissively, because it has been changed by darkness.

Não sabia onde pisava, se bem que através dos sapatos, que se haviam tornado um meio de comunicação, ele sentisse a dubiedade da terra.

Through his shoes he feels how supple and changing is the earth that has been touched by darkness. He doesn't know where he is going or what he is stepping on (maybe his eyes are closed?)

Just a couple of ideas which will hopefully shed some light,

ME