“Existe em mim uma certeza que implora ser expressada, para se desmantelar no proprio ato de expressão. Ah, esta curiosidade eterna!”
"There is in me a certainty that begs to be expressed, dismantled while in the very act of expression. Ah, to be forever curious!"
When I moved up here, I barely had any English language in me. My dear friends, bless them, joked and applauded when I mixed my metaphors, my semantics and meanings… one of the mix-ups was that when I ran five miles and felt weak I said I was losing my forces…
Strengths and forces were analogues and not embedded. In addition, in Portuguese, they are expressed with the same word “força”. My strength, I realize now, is usually associated with my body and with my survival. My forces are associated instead with guides, energies, dreams, clarities and a whole bunch of animated realities that continue to inhabit my worlds… the words work better, or soothingly in Portuguese for me, and translate nicely when I take a glimpse at Physics, for example, preferably in brief visual terms.
Here enters Caetano Veloso, brilliant Brazilian poet composer of Força estranha. Gal Costa’s rendition in this track enchants me, every time, to tears.
From the album Gal tropical, here on a YouTube premium site. Hope it translates into sound for you.
Here on Spotify:
The lyrics to the song are deep, a very tricky translation, as most of Caetano Veloso’s songs are… I found none available, so this is my best effort.
And mind you, I have translated for some pretty highly situated folks, including wives of Brazilian president elects, I sat next to Nancy Reagan, upstairs in the White House, and next to Bush, the senior father, focused on his ear for the wife of the then Cape Verdean president … in the regal vice presidential palace on Mass Ave. Mrs. Barbara was wearing multiple strands of white pearls as she came down the circular staircase with greetings and inquiring “what language are we doing today?” Inserting footnote right here, embedded in the text, because little boy Igor would not stop haranguing me until I did as he dictated.
The translation does not have music as a central point, I tried to follow it, but the poetry and deep multiple meanings hidden in his language, yes. I thought of Caetano’s trajectory and wisdom… and then of the language barriers…
When Gal sings it, though, we all become the sun.
Por isso essa força me leva a cantar/This is why this force leads me to sing/This is why this guide leads me to song
A vida é amiga da arte/É a parte que o sol me ensinou/O sol que atravessa essa estrada que nunca passou/Life is a friend of art/Is the lesson of the sun/the sun crossing this road that was never traveled, where I have never stepped?
… This is a strange force in physics, but it is not embodied... or is it? Is the sun embodied in us?
Are the tiny, articled qualifiers of nouns like the and this and that leading us?
Essa força, um menino, daquele menino, daquela barriga, this road I never crossed?/ This strength, that seldom boy, that other further away boy, that distant belly, …
We are forever deeply ingrained in our deep grammars of thought, deeply in conjugal plays with multiple levels of realities and languages, no doubts about it, for now.
Lyrics I saw a boy running I saw time playing around the path of that boy I soaked my feet in the stream believe I have never left the sun still shining on the road where I have never stepped I saw a woman preparing another person time stopped and I gazed at her belly Life is a friend of art it’s the part the sun teaches me, the sun that crosses this road that never was That’s why this force leads me to sing That’s why this strange force in the air That is why I sing, I cannot stop That is why I have such a large voice Time does not stop yet time never ages for the one who knows of the game, of the fire of the things that are It is the sun, the time, the road, it is the step and it is the ground I saw many men fighting I heard their shouts I went to the bottom of all desire revealed And the certainty about everything is not worth one single walk under the sun. I saw grey hairs growing on the face of the artist time does not stop yet time never ages And the sun ah the sun on the road, is the sun on the road, Is the sun That’s why this force leads me to sing That’s why this strange force That is why I sing, I cannot stop That is why I have such ample voice
Lyrics Eu vi um menino correndo Eu vi o tempo brincando ao redor Do caminho daquele menino Eu pus os meus pés no riacho E acho que nunca os tirei O sol ainda brilha na estrada e eu nunca passei Eu vi a mulher preparando outra pessoa O tempo parou pra eu olhar para aquela barriga A vida é amiga da arte É a parte que o sol me ensinou O sol que atravessa essa estrada que nunca passou Por isso uma força me leva a cantar Por isso essa força estranha Por isso é que eu canto, não posso parar Por isso essa voz tamanha Eu vi muitos cabelos brancos na fronte do artista O tempo não para e no entanto ele nunca envelhece Aquele que conhece o jogo, do fogo das coisas que são É o sol, é o tempo, é a estrada, é o pé e é o chão Eu vi muitos homens brigando, ouvi seus gritos Estive no fundo de cada vontade encoberta E a coisa mais certa de todas as coisas Não vale um caminho sob o sol E o sol sobre a estrada, é o sol sobre a estrada, é o sol Por isso uma força me leva a cantar Por isso essa força estranha Por isso é que eu canto, não posso parar Por isso essa voz tamanha Por isso uma força me leva a cantar Por isso essa força estranha no ar Por isso é que eu canto, não posso parar Por isso essa voz tamanha É o sol, é o tempo, é a estrada, é o pé e é o chão. It is the sun, it is time, it is the road, it is the step, and it is the ground.