Posted in English

Que Mulher é Essa?

Here’s a translation of “Que Mulher é Essa” by A Garota Não, because why not? I think it literally comes out as “What woman is that” but I’ll translate it as “Who’s that woman” because it sounds better in English.

Que Mulher é Essa

Que mulher é essa /Who’s that woman
Que eu vejo na telenovela /That I see in the soap opera?
As mulheres à minha volta /The women around me
Não se parecem nada com ela /Don’t look anything like her.

É só mulher sexy /It’s only a sexy woman
Que desliza quando passa /Who glides by
A coxa* não entra /No lame woman appears
E se entra é pra dar graça /And if she does its only as comic relief.

Que mulher é essa /Who’s that woman
Que eu vejo na publicidade /That I see in the ads
Será que as feias /Do the ugly women
Vivem todas na minha cidade /All live in my town?

Só mulher bonita /Only a beautiful woman
Todas altas e esguias /All tall and slender
E só entra a gorda /And the fat woman only shows up
Para perder calorias /To go on a diet

A preta não entra /The black woman doesn’t appear
A baixa não entra, não /The short woman doesn’t, no
A velha não entra /The old woman doesn’t appear
A torta não entra, não /The disabled** woman doesn’t appear, no
Quanto talento gasto em vão /How much talent is wasted?

Que mulher é essa /Who’s that woman
Que desfila lá na passarela /That parades up there on the catwalk
Nunca há-de entrar na moda / It will never be fashionable
O pé descalço da Gabriela /To have bare feet like Gabriela

Só mulher com estilo /Only a woman with style
Com glamour e muito brilho /With glamour and lots of polish
Toda a roupa assenta /Whose clothes all fit
Só à gente é um sarilho /We’re the only ones with problems

Que mulher é essa /Who’s that woman
Que aparece tanto na revista /Who’s in the magazines so often
Três folhas só de fotos /Three pages of nothing but photos
E um cantinho de entrevista /And a tiny corner for the interview

E o que é que importa..? /And what does it matter?
Quem quer saber do que fala? /Who wants to know what she talks about?
Muito mais importa /It’s much more important
Que vestido leva à gala… /What dress she wears to the gala.

A preta não entra /The black woman doesn’t appear
A baixa não entra, não /The short woman doesn’t, no
A velha não entra /The old woman doesn’t appear
A torta não entra, não /The disabled** woman doesn’t appear, no
Quanto talento gasto em vão /How much talent is wasted?

A Garota Não

*Coxa usually means thigh but I think the sense here is the feminine form of “coxo”, which is defined as “pessoa que coxeia” – a person who limps. So I have opted for “a lame woman” which I hope is what she meant!

**Torta, in this context, is a bit confusing. It means twisted or bent, and priberam gives a few informal meanings including rowdy, cross-eyed, disloyal. I’ve also seen twisted in the sense of having a crooked face after local anaesthetic at the dentist, so possibly someone with an asymmetrical or disfigured face…? I originally published this with the translation as “twisted” but I’ve edited it subsequently because some people I spoke to on reddit indicated that we’re supposed to picture someone whose bones are deformed in some way and who essentially has some form of physical disability or impairment.

Posted in English, Portuguese

Talk Talk

I wrote a short text about speaking. Thanks to csc_3 for the help with this one.

A minha cunhada visitou a irmã dela ontem, o que me deu oportunidade de falar português. A minha mulher costuma* falar inglês em casa, mas quando a família se junta, a conversa passa para português. Falei bem (na minha opinião!), mas estou consciente de ter feito** alguns erros de concordância e tal. Preciso de falar mais.

*dammit, I seem to have some sort of weird mental block about whether to write “costuma” or “customa”

** Hm, when I originally wrote this, I was trying to say “I was conscious of making errors” while I was speaking but by the time the corrector finished straightening out the grammar it said “I am conscious of having made errors” which is also true but I was trying to describe my feeling of self-consciousness in the moment so the meaning has changed slightly.

Portuguese people be like…

I think this lack of speaking practice is a problem I really need to get hold of. As I said a while ago, when I was feeling gloomy, speaking another language is a challenge when you’re an introvert who doesn’t really live for conversation in any language. But I need to make the effort to find a place to get some serious speaking time.

Posted in English, Portuguese

A joke that doesn’t work

Here’s a joke you can use at parties if you want people to look at you with a baffled, pitying expression:

Cola Cao

Hoje em dia, os cães são autocolantes mas antigamente, se quisesse prender um cão numa parede ou seja o que for, teria de usar Cola Cão

Cola = glue and Cão (with an accent) means dog so I’m reading this as dog glue, even though I know it’s a brand of hot chocolate powder and Cao is short for Cacau. The joke is just riffing off the idea of what you might use dog glue for.

It doesn’t work because Cao is pronounced differently from Cão. More like “Cáu”. Apparently it took a couple of reads to even see what I was driving at. Disappointing. I was quite proud of it.

Posted in English

Hot Off The Press: Audiobook News!

Tiago Rebelo - O Último Ano em Luanda Audiobook

I did one of my occasional sweeps through the audiobook sites, on the lookout for new titles in european portuguese and I have managed to add about ten new ones to my audiobook page. The one I’m most excited about is this 👉 O Último Ano Em Luanda (The Last Year in Luanda) by Tiago Rebelo , but there are quite a few others, including a couple of new freebies.

I’ve rearranged the page slightly too: Bertrand is further down the page. I like the fact that they are a specifically portuguese outlet but the sad fact is that their collection hasn’t grown much. Neither has Audible’s. Why, Audible? Why must you torture us lusophiles? Kobo are smashing it though! They have added a few new ones, including some shiny, recent releases that have gone straight on my wish list. So I’ve moved Kobo right to the top of the page and I’m fully recommending that if you are serious about listening to european portuguese audiobooks, that’s the app you need!

Posted in English

Rabo de Peixe

Netflix announced another Portuguese series had gone into production a couple of weeks ago. That will bring the number of specifically European Portuguese offerings to a measly three, but it’s a good sign that they are following up the success of Glória and I’m hoping for more to come. The name of the show is “Rabo de Peixe” (Fishtail) and its set in the Açores. Here’s the teaser trailer below.

Posted in English

Dall-E

Like a lot of people, i have been playing with Dall-E. This one surprised me. I was a bit worried it wouldn’t know who Fernando Pessoa was but it turned out it didn’t know what an otter was

Fernando Pessoa as an Otter

And here’s one where the Justice League all have the same super-power and it’s just knowing the colours of the Portuguese flag.

Portuguese Super Heroes
Posted in English

Please Sponsor Me And Help Fight Alzheimer’s

Me, astride my mighty steed

I’m going to be doing the London Nightrider event this weekend. I’ll be riding 100km, which is… what, about 65 miles? Something like that… to raise money for the Alzheimer’s society. It would mean a lot to me if you could sponsor me on my JustGiving page. I’ve got a temporary extra button over on the right-hand-side there 👉

It’s an overnight session, so I’ll be starting at 11PM and finishing at breakfast time. I’ve been cycling since I was tiny, but I’m not a sporty cyclist and I’ll be doing it on a very ordinary mountain bike, so I’m sure I can do it but it’s probably going to be pretty slow and painful!

Posted in English

Paula Rego

It probably doesn’t look like much here but you should see the original, looming above you…

I was sorry to hear of the death of Paula Rego, an amazingly powerful and versatile portuguese artist who made her home here in Britain . She made it to 87, that’s a good long life so no tragedy, but still, a loss for the world.

I went to see some of her work at Europe house last summer and then later in the same year went to see the full exhibition at the Tate with my wife, who was always far more aware of Rego’s work than I was, of course. I went looking for the blog post I wrote about the Tate visit and was a bit surprised to find I hadn’t written one! I wasn’t as active on here back then, but stll, I don’t know why I didn’t write about that of all things.

Oh well, at least I know who I’ll be writing about on writestreakPT tomorrow!