Here’s another song that keeps coming up in my YouTube recommendations. It’s really popular but it’s never really appealed to me. I think it’s the singer’s voice: it reminds me of a certain kind of American Rock bands the nineties like Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots, Blind Melon: that sort of grumbly, sulky way of singing that I find a bit off-putting. But I also know it’s really popular so I wanted to focus on it and try to understand it better. There are a few versions of it on YouTube, including an official video, a really good live version at the Nos Alive Festival, some audio/lyrics versions and a whole range of covers including this really nice one by Serena Kaos and this Fadofication by Camané but I think the easiest one to follow is probably this one because its pretty clear and has veteran actor/musician Victor Espadinha on guest vocals
Here are the lyrics. I’m not totally sure I nailed the grammar in verse 2. Might ask my wife about that later. I read the third verse to my daughter and she said it was “emo”. Correct. I wonder if the female form of emo is “ema”. Probably not.
Ouvi dizer que o nosso amor acabou /I heard them say our love was over
Pois eu não tive a noção do seu fim / But I had no idea it had ended
Pelo que eu já tentei / As much as I tried
Eu não vou vê-lo em mim / I can’t see it in myself
Se eu não tive a noção de ver nascer um homem / If I had no notion of seeing a man emerge
E ao que eu vejo / And from what I can see
Tudo foi para ti / It was all for you
Uma estúpida canção que só eu ouvi / A stupid song that only I heard
E eu fiquei com tanto para dar / And I had so much to give
E agora /And now
Não vais achar nada bem / You aren’t going to like it at all
Que eu pague a conta em raiva / That I pay the bill with anger
E pudesse eu pagar de outra forma / And could I pay any other way
Ouvi dizer que o mundo acaba amanhã / I heard the world ends tomorrow
E eu tinha tantos planos pra depois / And I had so many plans for later
Fui eu quem virou as páginas / I was the one who turned the pages
Na pressa de chegar até nós / In a hurry to arrive at us
Sem tirar das palavras seu cruel sentido / Without taking from the words their cruel meaning
Sobre a razão estar cega / As for my reason being blind
Resta-me apenas uma razão / I only have one reason left
Um dia vais ser tu / One day it’s going to be you
E um homem como tu / and a man like you
Como eu não fui / Like I never was
Um dia vou-te ouvir dizer / One day I’m going to hear you say
E pudesse eu pagar de outra forma / And could I pay any other way
Sei que um dia vais dizer / I know one day you’re going to say
E pudesse eu pagar de outra forma / And could I pay any other way
A cidade está deserta / The city is deserted
E alguém escreveu o teu nome em toda a parte /And someone wrote your name everywhere
Nas casas, nos carros, nas pontes, nas ruas / On the houses, on the cars, on the bridges, on the roads
Em todo o lado essa palavra / everywhere that word
Repetida ao expoente da loucura / Repeated to the point of madness
Ora amarga! ora doce / Now bitter, now sweet
Pra nos lembrar que o amor é uma doença / To remind us that love is an illness
Quando nele julgamos ver a nossa cura / When we see on it our cure
Luso 