I don’t really know what the rule is here, so was expecting at least one to be knocked back but got them all right first time. I suppose it’s one of those things where reading books just makes it “feel right” in a particular order.
A Feel For It
Category: English
Licença Poética ou Só Crime?
Having tried to write a sonnet the other day, I felt like trying a different poetic form. The Clerihew is something of a lost art form but I was obsessed with them for a few weeks in about 1998. My Favourite was
The people of Spain think Cervantes
Equal to half-a-dozen Dantes:
An opinion resented most bitterly
By the people of Italy.
And I can’t do a direct translation, so I decided to have a crack at recreating the spirit of the thing in Portuguese. I know some of the words are in a weird order, but I hope I haven’t stretched the grammar too far and it’s allowable within the poetic form…
Camões, segundo os portugueses,
Vale mais, uma dúzia de vezes,
Do que Shakespeare, o que provoca uma exclamação
De qualquer cidadão da minha nação.
I crowdsourced an answer to that question and one of the two respondents replied in the positive at least so I’m calling that a victory. Both suggested I sort out the metre, but Clerihews are allowed to be rambling and uneven so I haven’t even really tried to do that. If you’re curious, you could do worse than check out u/urinaRabugenta’s answer under my post here, for a more professional version. It’s better in every way, especially the second line (which is a real dog s breakfast in my version). The only thing I don’t like about it is rhyming – ção with – dão in the last line. Apart from that, it’s a banger! Notes underneath explain the reason for the changes. It’s good stuff.
Continência
Quite a false friend, this. It looks like it ought to mean the ability to hold your pee in, but no, it means a salute.
OK, OK, it means the other thing too, and covers a range of ideas in the general area of self-control, but it also means a salute.
Já falei sobre “Português em Foco” mas não te esqueças de que também existem Focas em Portugal
Cantiga da Burra
Ouvi uma versão desta canção recentemente no canal de David Antunes + the Midnight Band, que é sempre uma fonte de maravilhas e o desempenho neste caso é mesmo esmagador, uma vez que é tocado quase exclusivamente em instrumentos infantis (o vídeo está debaixo da tabela de letras nesta página) O original saiu em 2012 e foi lançado por Sebastião Antunes e Quadrilha. O Sebastião não é um familiar do David apesar de os dois partilharem um sobrenome, mas o David tocou várias vezes a canção ao vivo nos seus próprios espetáculos e o Sebastião até apareceu no canal do David também.
A música teve muito sucesso e (tanto quanto sei) muita gente gosta dela. A versão original é invulgar por incluir uma gaita de foles. O meu pai sabia tocar a gaita de foles escocesa e por isso estou predisposto a gostar a canção apesar de me sentir por outro lado dum abismo cultural de cem milhas de largura.
| Português | Inglês |
|---|---|
| Deram-me uma burra Que era mansa que era brava Toda bem parecida Mas a burra não andava A burra não andava Nem prá frente nem pra trás Muito lhe ralhava Mas eu não era capaz Eu não era capaz De fazer a burra andar Passava do meio dia E eu a desesperar E eu a desesperar Ai que desespero o meu Falei-lhe no burrico* E a burra até correu | They gave me a donkey That was tame and that was wild Everything seemed fine But the donkey wouldn’t move The donkey wouldn’t move Neither forward nor backward I yelled at it a lot But I couldn’t I couldn’t Make the donkey move It was after midday And I was in despair And I was in despair Oh, I was in such despair I told her about the (male) donkey And it even started running |
*This seems to be disputed. When I first wrote this I copied the lyrics from A Música Portuguesa and it says “falhei-lhe”. It seems like that version appears on quite a lot of pages dotted around the web, but I am reliably informed that the non-h version is the right one, so there you go!
Como É Linda
Carolina Deslandes is definitely growing on me. Her lyrics seem really well-crafted. Her voice doesn’t have the earth-shattering power of Sara Correia (the last portuguese singer I went to see), but she’s a different kind of singer and her voice works for the kind of music she’s making. I really like this one.
When I found the lyrics I saw they had transcribed it with “luta” in place of “puta”. You can find videos of her singing it that way on Rádio Comercial, but this video is bleeped out and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have bleeped luta, so I’m changing it back to what I think must be the original. Como é Linda a Puta de Vida is the name of a book by Miguel Esteves Cardoso, and I don’t know if she pinched the line from him or if it has older roots.
| Português | Inglês |
|---|---|
| Esfolar os joelhos A achar que sabia voar Ignorar os conselhos Que no fim nos iam salvar | Skinning your knees And finding you don’t know how to fly Ignoring the advice That would save us in the end |
| Ser abandonada Não ter onde arrumar o amor Não querer saber de nada E saber-te ao pormenor | Being abandoned Not having a place to put love Not wanting to know anything And knowing yourself in detail |
| Como é linda e caótica A puta da vida, amor Vê lá bem a nossa sorte Vê lá bem o nosso azar Como é linda e caótica A puta da vida, amor Viver a fintar a morte Hoje saímos pra dançar | It’s so beautiful and chaotic The bitch of life, my love. Just look at our good luck Just look at our bad luck It’s so beautiful and chaotic The bitch of life, my love. Living to trick death Today we’re going out dancing |
| Partir o coração Dar razão a quem nos avisou Uma desilusão Uma ferida que nunca sarou | Breaking your heart Proving the people who warned us right A disappointment A wound that never healed |
| Ser traído, chorar Desatar os nós da garganta Querer esquecer e lembrar Quando a saudade é tanta, tanta | Being betrayed, crying Untying the knots in our throat* Wanting to forget and remember When there’s so, so much longing** |
| Como é linda e caótica A puta da vida amor Vê lá bem a nossa sorte Vê lá bem o nosso azar Como é linda e caótica A puta da vida amor Viver a fintar a morte Hoje saímos pra dançar | It’s so beautiful and chaotic The bitch of life, my love. Just look at our good luck Just look at our bad luck It’s so beautiful and chaotic The bitch of life, my love. Living to trick death Today we’re going out dancing |
* Um nó da garganta is what english speakers would call “a lump in the throat”, so she’s talking about grief, panic or some other strong emotion
`**Should I even be translating “saudade” at this point?
Oh Dear
As you can see, I wrote that last post on the laptop and didn’t check what it looked like on mobile before publishing. Sorry, it wasn’t meant to be read as a vertical column of letters going on for page after page!
Fixed it now.
Today’s Homework was to Write a Sonnet, So Here’s a Blog with Words Written On It
Image by Oberholster Venita from Pixabay
Following yesterday’s blethrings about someone else’s sonnet, Português em Foco was like “OK, so why not try one yourself?”
Happy to report the number of errors was pretty low, which is a relief, because it would have been hard to correct without knackering the syllable count! Thanks as always to Cristina for helping weed out the mistakes.
Os anos passam, a vida avança,
Piso sempre esta minha trilha,
Olho com saudades a maravilha
Desta, minha sempre-crescente pança.
Estamos neste baile, então, dança
Até perderes uma sapatilha.
Tu és a minha única filha
Ainda que já não sejas criança.
És mulher, cada dia mais capaz
Mais bela e forte do que toda a gente
Igual ao teu pai, brilhante e sagaz.
Segue os teus sonhos. Por mais que tente
O tempo nunca anda para trás
Então, filha, vive e anda em frente.
Português em Foco Being Português em Foco
Spent ages trying to work out what “a persona poética Império” might mean and couldn’t find it in the original text the question is based on. Turns out it’s just a mistake and the last word only appears on the page where you write the answers, not in the printed book. 😠
Why you do dis to me, Português em Foco?
Easy One!
I was surprised to see a Brazilian website ask its readers “Qual é a única palavra em português que tem plural no meio?”, because it’s a word we students usually learn very early on, so wouldn’t it be blindingly obvious to a native speaker? Well, no apparently, or at least whoever prompted an AI to write this thing didn’t think so.
For those who don’t know, or can’t remember, I’ll stick the answer under this picture 👇
Ans Qualquer (pl Quaisquer) Original article here.
Luso 