Category: English

Posted in English

Learning About Time Zones Is Fun

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to appear on a podcast with Ângela from Learning Portuguese is Fun. She’s made it a theme of her current season that she invites on a couple of intermediate-level learners, and runs through a series of questions with them and then, after she edits it, gives her subscribers an exercise to correct the errors. She also goes through them with the learners of course. It seemed both fun and useful!

The questions are given out in advance for the students to think about but ideally should be fairly spontaneous, not just reading out prepared answers.

Unfortunately, I made a basic geographical error for which I blame Zoom: the invite said 3PM, which is fine, but I didn’t notice it also had the letters “CEST” after it. That’s “Central European Summer Time”. So although I had a chance to think about the answers on Thursday and Friday, I had planned to set aside an hour or so before the recording to get my brain and tongue warmed up, read through my notes and generally prepare myelf. But almost as soon as I sat down to do that, I got an email saying they’d already started and was I joining! Whoops! I’m more used to MS Teams and I think it would have handled the “fuso horário” better. Anyway, considering a cold start, I guess it wasn’t a total disaster, but I definitely made a lot of mistakes, talked too quickly because I was nervous, tripped over my tongue, went off on a few weird little tangents… Oh well, never mind, I’ll take all the speaking practice I can get! I might be on future episodes if she isn’t too traumatised by the amount of editing she had to do!

I was on with a Bosnian chap who I have to say, is obviously a faster learner than me because he’s alread speaking at a solid intermediate level despite being only about a year and a half into his learning journey, Impressive stuff!

The episode I’m in isn’t released yet, but if you want to hear this audio car crash yourself, you can subscribe here and snag the exercises here.

Posted in English, Portuguese

Lisboa Menina e Moça

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I’m in a translation mood again, and this one is a more traditional number: Lisboa, Menina e Moca by legendary fadista Carlos do Carmo. It’s pretty well known, and I hear it very often, so this is one of those songs to be aware of. The title is literally “Lisbon, Girl and Young Woman”, and he’s basically talking to the city as if it it was a girl and he was trying to – as the young folk say – rizz it up. It strikes me as a tiny bit cringe, but maybe that’s my cultural perspective. Let’s dive into the lyrics and see what it’s like. The version I’ve chosen is from an appearance on The Voice Portugal, and it’s notable because he breaks off part-way through to tell the young people in teh audience to stop clapping because it’s fado, not rock, which is a classic old dude move. That’s enough of your malarkey, Jack!

PortugueseEnglish
No Castelo ponho um cotovelo
Em Alfama descanso o olhar
E assim desfaço o novelo de azul e mar
Á Ribeira encosto a cabeça
Almofada da cama do Tejo
Com lençóis bordados à pressa na cambraia dum** beijo		I put one of my elbows on the castle
I rest my gaze on the Alfama
And like that, I undo the knot* of blue and sea
I lean my head on the Ribeira
The pillow on the bed of the Tejo
With hastily-embroidered sheets, in the cambric of a kiss
Lisboa, menina e moça***, menina
Da luz que os meus olhos vêem, tão pura
Teus seios são as colinas, varina****
Pregão que me traz à porta, ternura
Cidade a ponto-luz, bordada
Toalha á beira-mar, estendida
Lisboa, menina e moça, amada
Cidade mulher da minha vida		Lisboa, girl and woman, girl
By the light my eyes see, so pure
Your breasts are he hills, sea lady
The call that brings me to the door, tenderness
CIty with points of light, emroidered
Towel by the seashore, stretched out
Lisbon, girl and woman, loved
City, woman of my life
No Terreiro eu passo por ti
Mas na Graça eu vejo-te nua
Quando um pombo te olha, sorri, és mulher da rua
E no bairro mais alto***** do sonho
Ponho um fado que soube inventar
Aguardente de vida e medronho******, que me faz cantar		On the Terreiro, i pass by you
But in Graça, I see you naked
When a pigeon sees you, it smiles, you are a woman of the road
And in the highest suburb of the dream
I give you a fado that I knew how to invent
Brandy made of life and fruit that makes me sing
Lisboa no meu amor, deitada
Cidade por minhas mãos, despida
Lisboa, menina e moça, amada
Cidade mulher da minha vida		Lisboa on my love, laid
City by my hands, undressed
Lisbon, girl and woman, loved
City, woman of my life

*Novelo usually means a ball of thread or a cotton reel, but can mean a complicated thing, so I’m thinking he’s talking about a knot that he’s undoing, rather than a cotton reel – it just seems to make more sense in the context but I could be wrong.

**I couldn’t make any sense of this and thought he was saying “dei um beijo”, but that ain’t it chief! He’s just comparing the lightness of a kiss to the lightness of the material. There’s an explanation of all this needlework metaphhor here if you want to know more.

***I’m, translating moça as woman, not young woman, because I think it sounds better. FIght me! By the way, Menina e Moca is also the name of an early portuguese novel by Bernadim Ribeiro. Maybe there’s a link?

****Eesh! How to translate this? I think he’s saying she’s a woman who lives by the side of the sea – the second meaning given on Priberam – and that woudl make a certain amount of sense.

*****Referring to the Bairro Alto neighbourhood, of course, a wretched hive of wine and fadory if ever there was one

******Medronho is a kind of tree whose fruits are used to make aguardente de medronho.

Posted in English, Portuguese

Lena d’Agua – Grande festa

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Lena D’Agua is a singer who seems to have been around since the seventies and was a member of a truly unmemorable eurovision band back in the glory days of 1978, but what drew my attention to her is that her latest album was largely written by Pedro Da Silva Martins, who wrote a lot of Deolinda’s best stuff when they wre around. I don’t think it’s quite up to Deolinda standards, but it’s pretty good. Have a listen! The video is a bit cringe though so feel free to look somewhere else while you’re at it. I don’t go to many parties, but if that’s what they are like, I don’t think I’m missing much.

PortugueseEnglish
Inda* vou ganhar o Festival
Com uma canção de macramé
Hei de fazer capa num jornal
A pavonear um jacaré**		I’m still going to win the festival
With a macramé song
I’ll probably make the headlines
Showing off to an alligator
Espero que te caia a boca ao chão
Q’eu estou pronta para a grande festa
E tu de charuto e roupão
Com um arpão espetado na testa		I hope your jaw hits the floor
because I’m ready for the big party
And you with your cigar & fancy clothes
With a harpoon stuck in your forehead
Espero ainda ser um furacão
Ter uma cintura de ballet
A arrastar as joias pelo chão
Acenar de um porsche com chofer		I still hope to be a hurricane
To have a ballet waist
To drag jewelry across the floor
To wave from a chauffer-driven porsche
Espero que te caia a boca ao chão
Q’eu estou pronta para a grande festa
E tu de charuto e roupão
Com um arpão espetado na testa		I hope your jaw hits the floor
because I’m ready for the big party
And you with your cigar & fancy clothes
With a harpoon stuck in your forehead
Espero ainda ter algo carnal
Na minha poltrona de chalé
Matar esta fome canibal
Qu’eu ando tão farta de café		I still hope to have something carnal
In the armchair at my chalet
To satisfy this cannibal hunger
Becaue I’m so tired of coffee
Espero que te caia a boca ao chão
Qu’eu estou pronta para a grande festa
E tu de charuto e roupão
Com um arpão espetado na testa		I hope your jaw hits the floor
because I’m ready for the big party
And you with your cigar & fancy clothes
With a harpoon stuck in your forehead
Espero que te caia a boca ao chão
Qu’eu estou pronta para a grande festa
E tu de charuto e roupão
Com um arpão espetado na testa
Estou pronta para a grande festa		I hope your jaw hits the floor
because I’m ready for the big party
And you with your cigar & fancy clothes
With a harpoon stuck in your forehead
I’m ready for the big party

* Seems just to be a shortened form of Ainda

** OK, the translation makes no sense. There are a couple of alternative explanations according to the Dicionario Informal: I think the most likely one is that she’s talking about cigarettes, since that’s quite a strong motif in the video, so maybe she’s on the front of the newspapers posing with a fag? But there are a few alternative definitions that she could be referring to. Giving an ugly woman a makeover? Posing with a patient who’s been waiting a long time for an operation???

Posted in English

O Cuidado Dos Pássaros

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Just a quick interlude to discuss this book. It’s one of three i bought by the same author and, unlike the others, it’s mainly in English, but it’s a bilingual edition with portuguese dialogue in notes at the bottom of the grid.

O Cuidado Dos Pássaros

It’s quite a hard read though. The main character is a paedophile who’s trying to get through his life without harming anyone. It’s… An original idea for a book, but if you like your protagonists to be sympathetic people you can relate to you won’t find that here!

The other books I bought by him are Cartas Inglesas, which I reviewed a few days ago and Gente Remota, which I just finished today. I’ll be posting that review in a couple of days from now but spoiler alert) it’s definitely the pick of the crop!

Posted in English, Portuguese

Rapaz Delight

Posted on by Colin Lusk

I posted a rap featuring Sam the Kid a while ago, but I need to prove I’m down with the kids, so here’s another! I think last time I used too many asterisks, so I’ll try and use links where I can this time.

This one is called “Também Faz Parte”. The first verse, by Sam the Kid himself, is really hard and I suspect I am getting quite a bit of it wrong. Mundo Segundo’s verse is much easier to follow.

PortugueseEnglish
(Sam the Kid)
Quando a vida ficar vazia, faz ela virar poesia
O passado passou ‘pa trás, o teu prazo passou num dia
O fracasso tá ali na porta, quase dormiu na merda
Ele passa uma vida morta, e abraça que é o fim da meta
É o massacre que só humilha, cansado que o sol não brilha
Arrasado e ele só dormia a pensar abraçar a filha
E os homens levam-me os tropas
Boy, na zona é só desfalques
Paka limpa só funciona noutros palcos
Gravatas invisiveis não querem mais milionários
E tornam impossíveis cenários imaginários
Mas não tiram minha mística, sou atração turística
Desmistifico quem pensa que em bairros só há marginais, todos iguais
Por mais que inoves, a tua sina é ser da mesma escória
E putos trazem uma visão nova para a mesma história
Pais falidos fazem mais bandidos
Quem patrocina agora a casa é o filho de pais maridos
Um gajo na boa vem Ramona, a gente “esfaina”
Na estrada, a gente espalha a zona, a gente “shaina”
A judiciária que espreita por ‘tar na área
É suspeita a missão diária para ver toda a nossa área desfeita
Novas doutrinas, que alteram rotinas à procura de vidas londrinas
Um boy obrigado a ter emigrado e o bairro ainda é unido e bravo
Onde eu gravo o meu vídeo, agrado o passado p’ra no futuro ser lembrado
Esse é o meu fado		(Sam the Kid)
When life is empty, turn it into poetry
The past is gone behind, your goal passed in a day
Weakness is there at the door, almost asleep in the shit
He lives a dead life and embraces the end
It’s the massacre that only humiliates, tired because the sun isn’t shining
Devastated and he was only asleep, dreaming of hugging his daughter
And men bring their crew to me
Homeboy, in the neighbourhood, there’s only the hustle
Too clean only works on other stages
Invisible neckties don’t want more millionaires
And make imaginary scenarios impossible
But they don’t take my music, I’m a tourist attraction
I demystify anyone who thinks that in the neighbourhood there are only marginalised people, all the same
No matter how much you innovate, your destiny is to be the same scum
And kids bring a new vision for the same story
Skint parents make more criminals
The person protecting the house now is the child of married parents
A cool guy, here comes a police car, the people “It’s fine“*
In the street, the people spread out, the people “Shine!”
The Judicial Police that look to be in the area
It’s suspicious , the daily mission to see our whole neighbourhood pulled apart
New doctrines, that alter routines, in search of London lives
A homey forced to emigrate and the neighbourhood is still united and brave
Where I’m recording my video,
I thank the past to be remembered
in future
That’s my fate.
Também faz parte
Pensei num péssimo indício e disse-o
P’ra vir encarar à pressa ou começa no sacrifício
Em cada fim há um início, em cada início uma história
É hipótese duma nova trajetória, porque a glória (x2)		It plays a part too
I thought of a bad sign and said it
To come face to face with it in a hurry or start with sacrifice
In every end there is a beginning, in every beginning a history
It is the chance of a new direction, because of the glory (x2)
(Mundo Segundo)
Também vim do bairro mas não do bloco, eu cresci na ilha
Onde a miséria aponta o foco mas onde há fome há partilha
Onde um prato dá para quatro, um quarto p’ra família inteira
Duas camas, berço, terço na mesa de cabeceira
Um ordenado, uma pensão, rendimento de inserção
Uma criança como um dom num castelo de papelão
Um futuro que não sorri numa bela face trancada como
Um livro que não li com informação que faltava
Mas não deixei de ser eu, fui do breu ao apogeu
Fui do meu pequeno quarto aos palcos do coliseu
Tudo faz parte, eu luto. Dizem que a vida é prostituta
Mas apaixonei-me por ela a ver se a relação resulta
Num certo ponto de vista, podem me chamar masoquista
Mas não sou apologista de vitórias sem conquista
Tenho sonhos numa lista, mais uma linha que se risca
Na verdade só se despista aquele que se faz à pista
Porque eu corro por desporto mas não me alimento de vento
Fiz muito trabalho à borla, respeita o meu orçamento
Direto sem ornamento, não político de parlamento
Lamento não minto em detrimento que sinto por dentro
Do ventre até ao jazigo, imperfeito assim prossigo
Se partir, digam ao mundo “fechei a página deste livro”
Em cada fim há um início, em cada início uma história
É hipótese duma nova trajetória, porque a glória		(Mundo Segundo)
I come from the hood too, but not the block, I grew up on the island,
Where misery directs your focus, but where there is hunger there’s sharing
Where a plate is enough for four and a bedroom for a whole family.
Two beds, a crib, a rosary on the bedside table
A wage, a pension, a social security payment
A child like a king in a cardboard castle
A future that doesn’t smile on a beautiful face, locked like
A book I didn’t read, full of information I need
But I didn’t stop being me, I went from the darkness to the heights
I went from my little bedroom to the stage of the Coliseu
Everything plays a part. I fight. They say that life is a prostitute
But I fell in love with her to see if the relationship is a success
From a certain point of view, you can call me a masochist
But I’m not an apologist for victories without conquest
I have a list of dreams, one more line gets crossed out
In truth, only the person who stays on track loses the track
Because I run for sport but I can’t eat the wind
I did a lot of work for free. Respect my budget
Straight up, without ornament, not a politician in parliament
I’m sorry I don’t lie to the detriment of what I feel inside
From the cradle to the grave, imperfect, I do it like that
If you’re leaving, tell the world “I closed the page of that book”
In every end there’s a start, in every start there’s a history
It’s a chance of a new direction because of the glory
Também faz parte
Pensei num péssimo indício e disse-o
P’ra vir encarar à pressa ou começa no sacrifício
Em cada fim há um início, em cada início uma história
É hipótese duma nova trajetória, porque a glória (x2)		It plays a part too
I thought of a bad sign and said it
To come face to face with it in a hurry or start with sacrifice
In every end there is a beginning, in every beginning a history
It is the chance of a new direction, because of the glory (x2)
* This is possibly fanciful. Nobody I spoke to knew what this word and the quoted word at the end of the following line mean. The best guess was that they were portuguesified versions of english words
If you want a more chilled version of that to cleanse the pallet, you could try this acoustic version by A Garota Não. The lyrics are heavily cut to make it fit the format but it’s really nice, as most of her stuff is.
Posted in English

Oh No He Didn’t…

Posted on by Colin Lusk

Politicians are often prone to saying wildly inappropriate things in public and Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is no exception. 😬

Oof, That’ll Cost You At Least One Vote At The Next Election

Posted in English

Stories.

Posted on by Colin Lusk

O came across this passage and didn’t know quite what to make of it.

“Eu não adivinhei nada. E também não lhe disse que esta era a sua estória. Disse que era uma estória sua“

What’s the subtle difference between the two italicised phrases?

A sua estória = your story, the story of your life.

Uma estória sua = one of your stories.

Why estória and not história? I’m european portuguese, it’s a fancy way of saying a (fictional) story. História is the normal word for any history or story, whether fictional or not. I’m Brasil, it’s more straightforward: estória is fiction and história is non-fiction.