…who likes to prance about pretending to be a scientist, even though my degrees are in barely, tangentially scientific subjects, I enjoy reading this twitter account. It’s Brazilian, so I have to keep my wits about me, but the memes are actually pretty funny, even if about one in ten go completely over my head. And as a bonus, I get familiar with sciencey words without having to torture myself by working through a memrise deck of chemistry terminology or whatever.
Category: English
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Gente
How singular is “a gente”?
Well, first of all, it can be used as a sort of “we” pronoun as discussed a little while ago. But putting that aside, Gente usually means “the people” and it’s a bit confusing because unlike in English, it’s singular. In English youd say “The people don’t know anything” but in portuguese, “A gente não sabe nada”.
This can get a bit weird though. How long do you carry on this crazy charade that yiure taking about one person when really you might be talking about dozens?
I had an exchange with someone the other day in which I expressed disapproval of people who denounce books without reading them.
“Há gente que não LIU (…) mas DIZ (…)”
**and then in the following sentence, I just had to switch it up. I couldn’t maintain singular verb forms.
“DEVEM ler mais e falar menos.”
I asked around and thank goodness u had done the right thing.
“There is (people) that hasn’t read… but says…” Is OK as far as it goes, but when you pull into the following sentence it’s perfectly fine to treat them as a multitude again and say “They should read more and talk less”.
April Captains
Morena
I did a Tiago Bettencourt translation the other day, so let’s have a go at “Morena” too, not becaue it’s my favourite song of his, but because it has some nice guitar work.
OK, potentially controversial decision: I’m translating “Morena” as “Brunette”, because that’s the closest I can get to a literal translation. It’s not quite right though, for two reasons. Firstly, there’s a sense of the person’s skin being tanned or olive-toned as well as their hair being dark brown; and secondly, I think referring to women as blondes, brunettes, redheads has a slightly disrespectful tone in english (at least in some circles) and I think that’s less true in portuguese. That’s partly a linguistic thing: in Portuguese it’s more usual to use an adjective as a noun – for example “um inglês” not “um homem inglês” – and partly because we have a tendency to overthink things in the english-speaking world, especially a certain very large country situated a few hundred miles north of Brazil. Anyway, with that dislcaimer, let’s crack on.
| Portuguese | English |
| Esta morena não sabe O que o dia tem para lhe dar Diz-me que tem namorado Mas sem paixão no olhar Tem um risinho pequeno E que só dá de favor Corpo com sede de quente Mas que não sente calor Mas que não sente calor Esta morena não dança Quando lhe mostro Jobim Talvez não goste da letra Talvez não goste de mim Cabelo negro sem regra Caindo em leve ombro nu Feito de morno passado E amor que nunca cegou E amor que nunca cegou Morena no fundo quer Tempo para ser mulher Morena não sabe bem Mas eu no fundo sei Que quando o véu lhe cai Quando o calor lhe vem Sempre que a noite quer Sonha comigo também Há sítios que ela não usa Por não saber que estão cá Há mares que ela não cruza Por não ser eu a estar lá É de mim que ela precisa Para lhe dar o que não quer Talvez lhe mostre caminhos Onde se queira perder Onde se queira perder Esta morena não chora Com um fado negro de Oulman Nem com um poema de O’Neill Na primeira luz da manhã Sabe de tantos artistas Canta-me letras de cor Mas não lhe passam por dentro Não lhes entende o sabor Não lhes entende o sabor Morena no fundo quer Tempo para ser mulher Morena não sabe bem Mas eu no fundo sei Que quando o véu lhe cai Quando o calor lhe vem Sempre que a noite quer Sonha comigo também Esta morena não corre Quando a chamo para mim | This brunette doesn’t know What the day has to give her She tells me she has a boyfriend But without any passion in her eyes She has a little laugh That she only gives as a favour Body that thirsts for warmth But doesn’t feel heat But doesn’t feel heat This brunette doesn’t dance When I show her Jobim Maybe she doesn’t like the lyrics Maybe she doesn’t like me Black, unruly hair Falling on a light, naked shoulder Made by boredom gone by And love that never blinded her And love that never blinded her Deep down, the brunette wants Time to be a woman The brunette doesn’t really know But deep down, I know That when her veil falls When the warmth comes back to her Whenever the night chooses She dreams of me* too. There are places she doesn’t use Because she doesn’t know they’re here There are seas she doesn’t cross Because I’m not there It’s me she needs To give her what she doesn’t want Maybe I’ll show her paths Where she wants to lose herself Where she wants to lose herself This brunette doesn’t cry with the dark fado of Oulman Nor with the poetry of O’Neill In the first light of morning She knows so many artists She sings me lyrics by heart** But they don’t get inside her She doesn’t understand their flavour She doesn’t understand their flavour Deep down, the brunette wants Time to be a woman The brunette doesn’t really know But deep down, I know That when her veil falls When the warmth comes back to her Whenever the night chooses She dreams of me too. This brunette doesn’t run When I call her to me |
*= Remember “sonha comigo” might look like “dreams with me” – implying they are sleeping together – but it means “dreams of me”, which is a different kettle of fish! One of those instances where the use of prepositions can give you a slightly different mental image if you’re not careful.
**= Letras “de cor” sounds like it should mean colourful lyrics but there’s an older meaning of cor that is the same as coração, so it’s just like the english expression “knowing something by heart”
A Gorda – Opinião
Here’s a corrected review of a book I’ve been listening too lately called A Gorda (The Fat Woman) by Isabela Figueiredo. It has had rave reviews (this guy, for example, names it as his first, second and third best book of 2022) and… Well, it’s not the easiest book I’ve ever read, and I probably didn’t get all the nuance but I hung in there and managed to follow. The vocabulary is passable for upper-intermediate readers. You can buy the book at Bertrand or grab the audio version to listen to on your phone using the Kobo App.
A Gorda é um romance escrito por Isabela Figueiredo, que retrata uma portuguesa da minha geração, que “transporta (…) ou seja arrasta” 40 quilogramas de peso com ela. Ao longo da sua vida, sofre muitos problemas e muitos reveses. Nasceu no ultramar e volta para Portugal nos anos setenta com os outros retornados (se não me engano esta foi a experiência da autora também). Perde os pais e é traída por amigos, colegas e amantes e sente-se constrangida pelos efeitos deste peso excessivo, mas tem vontade de viver a sua vida, portanto recusa soçobrar.
Durante o percurso da história, a autora faz referência aos eventos da época na qual a protagonista se encontra: o Incêndio do Chiado, a crise financeira de 2008-9 e vários outros. Isto situa-nos na história do país e reforça a realidade da protagonista. Lembra-nos que pessoas assim existem mesmo, e a história não é uma fantasia abstrata sem ligação ao mundo verdadeiro.
How Fernando Pessoa Saved Portugal
Yesterday’s post was about the strange case of Fernando Pessoa’s advertising slogan for Coca Cola in 1927. As I mentioned, there seem to be a few different perspectives on the motives of the people involved, but I don’t think the facts of the matter are in doubt.
Anyway, it turns out that there’s a short movie about the incident. It’s made by a French company but it’s in portuguese with English subtitles. Someone’s put it on Facebook. Hurry though, it might not be there forever. It’s a good length and very easy to follow, so I can recommend it even if your listening skills are underdeveloped.
The film has a slightly playful, surreal tone. The name of the drink os given as “Coca Louca” and it translates the slogan as “First you’re surprised, then you’re possessed”, then plays with that idea of possession by showing the minister for health convinced that the drink contains evil demons which need to be cast out by an exorcist with a bottle opener in the shape of a crucifix!
It also depicts the poet not as Pessoa himself but as Álvaro de Campos, one of the heteronyms, who appears in the film as a separate person, looking just like the man himself.
Ana Galvão
Someone told me that, given my proclivity for puns, I should check out Ana Galvão.
There are some videos online of her in a room and they are very dad-jokish, so if you like that, you might like this, but if you don’t, look away now, because this is just raw punnage from start to finish. I’ve put explanations below, partly to make myself understand them and partly for anyone who shares my love of crap jokes but maybe can’t follow what’s being said. I struggled a bit with some of them. If anyone thinks I’ve got any wrong, let me know in the comments!
She’s one of the co-hosts on this show, As Três de Manhã, so she’s not the person in the main frame of the video (That’s Joana Marques – even I know that) but she’s in the bottom-right corner, on the left.
1
Q. What do you call an epic shop that sells persianas (blinds or shutters on a house)?
A. Adamaestores – what? OK, Adamastor is like a giant sea monster who appears in Camões’s epic Os Lusíadas. It’s big, so I guess that explains the “epic” bit. Store explains the shop but but what does adamae have to do with shutters? A da Mãe? Do only mothers like blinds? I don’t get it. Nah, I was really “a bater na porta errada” with this one. Estores are shutters. So it’s just a pun on Adamastor and estores.
2
(Talking about someone called Lady Betty) In this case, I’m an analfabetty. Analfabeta means illiterate.
3
Q. What would the São Silvestre (a running race in Brazil) be called if all the participants were big strong men?
A. São Silvestre Stallone. Easy one.
4
So when you say I drink crazy teas… A crazy tea is a chálupa
Chá is tea of course, and I’ve talked about the word chalupa in a previous post.
5
Q. Do you know what you call someone who writes hate on the Internet and eats minty chocolate?
A. An After-Hater. Probably easy although I didn’t know they sold after eights in Portugal!
6
I want to introduce you to the father of João Paulo Sousa. It’s João “Pai-lo” Sousa, just a splice of Pai with Paulo.
7
“No melhor pano cai a Sancha” As Joana says, this doesn’t make sense but it’s based in an expression: no melhor pano cai a nódoa” Which means The stain lands on the best cloth. It’s a sort of pessimistic phrase like “the toast always lands butter side down”
8
Q. If I had a tea shop that was mine, what would it be called?
A. TisAna Galvão. Tisana is an infusion like a tea or herbal… Concoction.
9
Q. (Talking about the decline in coaching as coaches lose their clients) And do you know where the coaches will go when they no longer have clients?
A. To the museum of coaches.
O Museu Nacional de Coches is a real place, but it displays horse-drawn carriages, not life coaches.
There’s another video here but they’ve disabled embedding so I can’t post the whole thing. Here’s a breakdown:
1
Joana: It’s all dazzling for Emanuel. Now then, Ana, “Deslumbrante”
Ana: “Lumbrante”. (Deslumbrante means “dazzling” but it works as a dad joke because it sounds like “Diz ‘lumbrante'”)
2
Joana: Well, there’s chouriço-flavoured tea
Ana: Chá-riço
3
Caller: It’s a question of character, isn’t it, ending a marriage of 12 years by email
Ana: it’s not about character, it’s about characters.
4
Some slightly confused stuff about “Mick de Câmara Pereira” (pun on Mico de Câmara Pereira, a fadista who comes from a very aristocratic and well-connected family, as far as I can tell. I’d never heard of the bloke before, but that’s what Zé Google tells me, anyway)
5
Q. What do you call the automobile stand of a magician?
A. Car Tola.
A Cartola is a top hat. Car is obvious. Tola can mean a few different things. Usually when you see it it’s the feminine version of “tolo” meaning fool or foolish. It can also mean kinds of wood. Stand de automóveis can be a car showroom, but a stand more generally is usually used for a stand at an expo or a fair so I guess we’re thinking wood, wooden table, dais… Something like that. Oof. Hard work, this one!
6
Joana: He got a hug from Bruce Springsteen
Ana: You’d better believe it! An “Abruce” (just a pun on abraço and Bruce, obviously!)
7
There’s a tea-house in Alentejo. It’s called the Chá-Parro. Chaparro is a kind of small oak. There are restaurants called Chaparro in Alentejo, but I guess just because a lot grow there, maybe farmed for their bark, to use as corks.
Well, you’ve made it to the end. I admire your fortitude.
Umlauts
I have a book somewhere around here that is in (Brazilian) portuguese and it has umlauts in it. Actual, honest-to-god, heavy-metal style umlauts.
The Umlaut – or Trema in portuguese – is the pair of dots that appears above some vowels, mainly in germanic languages. They change the sound of the vowel, usually allowing it to be sounded instead of blending into another vowel like a diphthong.
As far as I can tell from the book, the Brazilians mainly seemed to use it in situations where you have a qu sound but you really want to pronounce the u. So there would be a difference between the que in “Freqüência” and “queda”: in the first it would sound like the que in the english word “frequency’, but in the second it’s just more like a standard que. It was dropped from european portuguese orthography in 1945 but the Brazilians kept using it, officially till the most recent acordo ortográfico. Now, I’ll let you speculate about whether Brazil’s decision to hang onto the Umlaut in 1945 might have been related to an influx of new arrivals from an entbusiastic umlaut-using european country at around that time, but I couldn’t possibly say.
Anyway, it’s officially baninated, but you can occasionally see examples in the wild. Here, for example.
The E-Word
There’s a proverb in portuguese that goes “De Espanha, nem bom vento, nem bom casamento”. From Spain, neither good winds nor good marriages.
I’m not sure about the winds. Where can a wind come from? Sea breezes off the Atlantic are probably OK but winds coming from from the south must be pretty hot. I doubt an easterly wind is going to be too bad in comparison. As for the marriage bit, I think it mainly refers to marriages between the royal houses. Occasionally they have cast a shadow over Portugal’s independence, but Portugal has been a republic for a century and it still persists. Odd. It’s a good one to throw out if you want to tease someone for their hispanophilia though.
Luso 