Following on from the last post – this picture I took at the Museu do Fado contains Fazer falta, and it’s prohibited so I am drawn to translate it…. Pre-AO spelling though so ironically it’s just as illegal now as it was then 🙂
The fierce, unjust heap Is blind or doesn't see well Randomly leaving in the world People who won't be missed
My parents, my grandparents Death has taken everyone from me I was left alone, suffering In the world, always crying What an outcast I am
Oh death, why don't you come for me To stop by heart In this sad life That was never cheerful for me And only has illusion
Everything is over for me Without having anyone in the world Weighting for the hour that sounds Don't leave the world at random That nobody will miss
It’s interesting isn’t it? First of all, that first word, parga, is quite unusual. It’s a heap of stored hay and grain stored away from the weather (silage?). I wonder if it had some other meaning on the 1930s. Alternatively, it might even be a typo, because praga (plague) would make a lot of sense.
I’m also interested in the slight shift in wording between the last two lines of the first verse and the last two of the last. I wonder what difference it makes. I feel like there’s a shift in emphasis there but I can’t quite put my finger on it.
Summary of an article in Observador with notes at the bottom
Este artigo no site do jornal Observador lembra-nos que determinadas temas surgem em todas as sociedades modernas hoje em dia. Há quem prestam atenção Ă s letras de cancões infantis e detetam os traços de um passado mais cruel que a presente. O artigo fala destes traços sob a rubrica de “politicamente incorreto” mas para ser mais exato, as letras contĂŞm referencias a violĂŞncia domestica, crueldade para com os animais* e racismo. Há muitos exemplos no artigo, alguns triviais (tal como “atirei o pau ao gato”) e alguns mais nojentos.
*=”crueldade para com os animais” is an interesting contruction. There are two prepositions in there. Literally, it would be “cruelty for with the animals”, which sounds weird to anglophone ears, but does seem to be legit. A bit of research and a question on a r/Portuguese shows that it’s a prepositional phrase meaning “in relation to” – CiberdĂşvidas article here. It appears in the wikipedia article about cruelty but the main title of the article is just “Crueldade Com Animais” so obviously both make sense. By the way, it’s worth noting that brazilians spell “pára” (meaning “stop”) without the accent and in theory portuguese people should spell it that way too now, but it’s the most-ignored aspect of the Acordo Ortográfico because it’s so confusing. However, you might come across a phrase like “para com isso” which means “stop that”, so try not to get confused if you do!
**=I struggle to come up with a good translation for “lengalenga”. I’ve seen it explained as a kind of rhyming mnemonic, but I don’t think it’s that: it seems to refer to repetitive chants like rhymes that aren’t quite nursery rhymes – like “ip dip sky blue, it is not you” or “i see England, I see France, I see Colin’s underpants”. That kind of thing, I believe.
***=hm, branqueamento = whitewashing or sanitising something but in the context of imposing racist songs on black students it sounds like a pun which wasn’t my intention when I wrote it
Luso 