Re: OT: Brazilian Portuguese help (LONG, sorry)

On 10/31/06, Roger Mills <rfmilly@...> wrote:
> For years I've been enjoying a CD of songs from the Nordeste-- one in
> particular because of the singer's incredible sound and technique. I could
> only understand a few of the words, however, and only recently did it occur
> to me to hunt up the lyrics online :-(
>
> I know there is no special requirement that song lyrics should make sense,
> but there are a number of words and locutions that my limited knowledge of
> Port. (based entirely on knowledge of Spanish and a bit of linguistic
> history) can't quite handle.
>
> ROMARIA [Pilgrimage] as sung by ELIS REGINA-- Apparently written by one
> "Texeira" (there are online recordings, which I highly recommend)
>
> É de sonho e de pó---  it is from/of dream and dust
> o destino de um só---  the destiny of one alone
> feito eu perdido em pensamentos sobre o meu cavalo---
>    made I/me lost in thoughts on my horse
Like me, lost in thoughts (while sat) on my horse.

> É de laço e de nó
> de gibeira o jiló dessa vida
> Cumprida a sol.
>
Oh, man! The first lines of the lyrics are hard to understand even to
us, Brazilians! :) Poetic language is sophisticated, but full of
complications. :D

> Questions: does feito in line 3 go with É in line one "the destiny ... is
> made of dream and dust...etc"??
I suspect that, in this case, "feito eu" is an idiom which means "like
me", "as me".

>  Then what does eu in line 3 go with?  The
> last 3 lines are a mystery; I know laço and nó, but gibeira isn't in any
> dictionary.
"Laço" is "lace", "nó" is "knot". The metaphors are all centered in
the figure of a cowboy.

"Gibeira", or "algibeira", means "pocket". (Yes, I had to look it up
in a dictionary too, because the word "bolso" is much more common.)

> Jiló apparently is a bitter vegetable, and probably a symbol for
> the bitterness of life (..dessa vida).
Yes. You are correct.

Cumprida a sol ---????

"Dessa vida cumprida a sol" = "Of this life lived under the sun."
"Sun" here metaphorically means "sacrifice", I believe, because a
cowboy works the whole day under the sun, which is hot, tiresome, and
not good to the health.

>
> Refrain:
> Sou caipira pira pora Nossa Senhora de Aparecida---
>    I'm a [peasant,hillbilly] ...? for Our Lady of Aparecida (the Virgin
> Patroness of Brazil, so I learn).
"Caipira" means "hillbilly".
"Caipira Pirapora" is a game of words. "Pirapora" is the name of a
town in the state of "Minas Gerais", Brazil. ("Minas Gerais" means
"General mines", so you understand why the song author uses the
metaphors of "mines", "train/wagon", etc. It is the beauty of poetry!
:)  )

> Ilumina a mina escura e funda o trem da minha vida---
>    (she?) illuminates the dark mine and establishes? the train/course? of my
> life
No. This is the imperative tense in informal parlance (Brazilian
Vernacular). Like "our lady, please, illuminate the dark mine and
establish the train/wagon of my life". It is a metaphor: wagons are
used to carry minerals in mines. Dark mines, in the song, are bad
situations in our lives. Train is the course of your life. Poetic
language.

> (repeated)
>    What is _pira_? just a repeat of the end of caipira (which has other
> meanings too)?
Explained above.

>    What is the (grammatical) connection between _dark mine_ and _train of my
> life_?? Do I have that line right???
>
> O meu pai foi peão, minha mãe solidão---
>    my father was ....? my mother solitude
"Peão" is a synonym of "vaqueiro", and means "cowboy".

> Meus irmãos perderam-se na vida em busca de aventuras---
>    my brothers got lost in life in search of adventures
> Descansei, joguei, investí, desistí---
>    I rested(trusted?), I played(gambled?), I invested(attacked?), I
> stopped(gave up?)
Something like that.

> Se há sorte, eu não sei, nunca ví---
>    If there's luck, I don't know, I never saw (it)
>
> (Refrain)
>
> Me disseram porém, que eu viesse aquí---
>    they told me however, that I should come here
> Pra pedir de romaria e prece paz nos desaventos---
>  to [make a pilgrimage?] and pray (for?) peace in (misfortunes?)
Yes. You got it.

> Como eu não sei rezar --- since I don't know how to pray
> Só queria mostrar meu olhar, meu olhar, meu olhar---
>    I only wanted to show my .....???
"olhar" is "eyes" in this context. As he does not know how to pray for
"our lady", he only shows his face and eyes to the image of the
religious patronage of Brazil. It is a form of devotion.

>
> What tense is disseram?? Preterit, 3d plural??
>
Yes. "Disseram" means "they told".

> (Refrain)
>
> Can anyone (our Brazilian friends) explain this any further?
>
If I interpreted the lyrics correctly, it tells the feelings of a
cowboy who had a life full of suffering, but he has a lot of devotion
in "Our lady" (the mother of Jesus Christ), and his devotion makes him
hopeful that, with the blessing of "Our lady", he can overcome easier
the obstacles that the future reserves to him.
This song is very famous here in Brazil, because the major part of the
population is catholic. Moreover, many elderly people lived, in their
youth (a long time ago), in a country that was not urban, so many
people identify themselves with the figure of a cowboy, expressed in
the lyrics.

> I've been inspired to order a CD, Elis Regina ao Vivo, and hope she won't
> disappoint :-)))) She was apparently part of the Tropicalia movement, and
> died prematurely, in 1982.
>
Tropicalia was a revolutionary movement in Brazilian arts (specially
music), so the critics say.

>
> Apologies for the length, but if I've turned someone else onto this song,
> well and good.
>
I hope my bad explanation (as I am not very good in literary text
interpretation) helps you instead of making you even more confused. If
you have further questions, feel free to ask me.
Thanks for enjoying Brazilian culture.

Antonielly Garcia Rodrigues

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