So here’s a good example of half-understanding a song and completely missing the point. I always thought this song was about a Moorish (Moroccan, Saracen, Muslim) sorcerer of some kind, but swotting up on my Ana Moura lyrics ahead of next week’s concert, I found out that it’s not that at all. Apparently a Moura is a fairy-tale creature from old Galician and portuguese legends. Reading the description on the Wikipedia page, it sounds an awful lot like a djinn/genie of Arabic folktales, so it’s not wholly fanciful that the moor in the sense of Moorish invaders (Mouros) and the Mouro/Moura of legend are bound up in some way, but it certainly illustrates the point that relying on half-understanding most of the words in a song can be deceptive!
Tag: music
A Música
I’m just putting a list together of Portuguese music that I can listen to on Spotify and I have been looking at lyrics/translations of songs. There are still loads of tracks on my iPod that I can’t quite follow so I have to figure out what the words are. It’s a pretty good way of learning vocabulary. As usual, I am often quite surprised at the humour hiding in what sounds like a fairly straight-faced song. Like this one for example: I had no idea what they were saying, but once I saw the words on the screen this whole world of content poured out of it and now I can enjoy it on a whole other level.
The list is here, by the way. It has a couple of non-European accents – Os Mutantes (Brasil) and Cesaria Évora (Cabo Verde) but apart from that it’s sound.
I think I’m something of a freak for not liking DAMA since everyone asks me if I do. They must be like the Portuguese Coldplay or something – one of those bands that seem to be inexplicably popular despite their overpowering blandness. I only like one song and that has a Brazilian rapper on it so I can’t listen to that either.
O Tyler Joseph E Eu
I wrote a narrative version of our adventures at Reading Festival on iTalki because it seemed to have more potential than just the bitty account I published yesterday. My daughter wanted an English version so I’m going to do alternate sentences, Portuguese, English, Portuguese, English.
Hi lovely. I hope you like it. It’s quite hard to be funny and interesting in a language I don’t speak well, but I tried!
So here we go…
Fomos ontem a um festival de musica.
Yesterday we went to a music festival
Tweetei “ao vivo” durante o dia inteiro em Português para praticar.
I tweeted live in portuguese all day for practice
O festival se chama Reading Festival porque fica numa cidade que se chama Reading, mas “Reading” significa “a ler” ou “leitura” e por isso usei o hashtag #festivalDaLeitura apesar do facto de que não tem nada a ver com livros.
The festival is called Reading Festival because it’s in a town called Reading, but “Reading” is the English equivalent of the portuguese words “lendo” or “leitura” (Portuguese words for reading!) so I used the hashtag #festivalDaLeitura even though it has nothing to do with books!
A minha esposa ficou confusa por isso.
My wife was confused by that
Porque é que um homem de 47 anos foi a uma festival para jovens de quinze a vinte-e cinco anos?
So why is it that a 47-year old man went to a festival for 15 to 25-year-old youngsters?
Fui com a minha filha.
Well, I went with my daughter
Ela tem onze anos – mais nova do que a média da idade duma pessoa no festival, mas é uma fã da banda Twentyøne Piløts (vinte-e-um piløtøs).
She is eleven – younger than the average age of someone at the festival but she is a fan of the band Twentyøne Piløts
Esta banda estava programada para às vinte-e-um menos dez.
This band was scheduled to play at 8.50PM
Conduzimos até ao festival na manhã e passamos o dia a explorar a arena.
We drove to the festival in the morning and spent the day exploring the arena
O Sol brilhava e o dia estava quente.
The sun shone and the day was warm.
Ouvimos várias bandas novas: Creeper, Lower Than Atlantis, Citizen, Neighbourhood, Dinosaur Pile-up.
We saw some new bands: Creeper, Lower Than Atlantis, Citizen, Neighbourhood, Dinosaur Pile-up
A experiência foi muito divertida.
The experience was really fun
Quando o relógio aproximou-se da hora de jantar, fomos para a tenda do NME onde os 21 Pilots iam tocar.
When the clock was nearing dinner time, we went to the NME tent where 21 Pilots were going to play
Chegamos muito cedo para tentar encontrar um bom sítio para ver o palco.
We arrived very early to try and find a good place to see the stage
Foi difícil, porque existiam muitos idiotas altos que empurraram em frente de nós, mas no afinal achamos um lugar perfeito.
It was difficult because there were a lot of tall idiots who pushed in front of us but finally we found the perfect place.
Sabes os Twentyøne Piløts?
Do you know Twentyøne Piløts (Yes, I know my one English reader does!)
São bué fixe!
They’re so cool!
Quando chegaram ao palco todas as fãs gritaram e fizeram um grande barulho.
When they arrived on stage all the fans screamed and made a big noise
A música começou e dançamos, saltamos, e cantamos muito fortemente.
The music started and we danced and jumped and sang really loudly
Eles tocaram as músicas mais conhecidas, e enquanto que tocaram, fizeram muitas acrobacias loucas.
They played their best-known songs and while they were playing they did loads of crazy stunts (I don’t know how to say “hamster-ball” in Portuguese)
Depois do concerto, regressamos a casa.
After the concert we went home.
Ouvimos mais tarde que durante uma acrobacia o cantador, o Tyler Joseph, foi vitima dum assalto, mas achamos que a historia foi exagerada.
We heard later that during one of the stunts, the singer, Tyler Joseph had been the victim of an assault but we think the story was exaggerated
Caiu sobre um grupo de fãs, perdeu um sapato e a sua t-shirt. foi rasgada.
He fell on top of a group of fans, lost a shoe and his t-shirt was ripped (I don’t know how to say “ski mask” in Portuguese)
Alguns fãs ficaram bêbados mas não havia uma atmosfera nada má.
Some fans were drunk but there wasn’t a bad atmosphere.
Actually, that last sentence understates it – the atmosphere was amazing and the weird backlash from fans online has been a bit surreal to watch. I had someone ALLCAPS ME because I had been near the moshpit so he thought I was one of the villains who had done the deed.
Anyway, that’s my story. If two blog posts weren’t enough and you want to know more about these smol beans there’s another eyewitness account of the crime here written by my daughter, who has employed much higher journalistic standards in her account and is able to supply far more detail.
Live-Tweeting in Portuguese
Fomos ao “Reading Festival” hoje (vamos aos fatos: ontem. É depois da meia-noite agora). Decidi de tweetar/ pipiar “ao vivo” e em Português durante o dia inteiro. Traduzi o nome do festival “Festival da leitura” porque o nome da cidade – “Reading” também significa “A Leitura”. É uma piada.
Língua Dos Pês
I mentioned a little while ago that I was intrigued by a Luisa Sobral song called “Língua Dos Pês”, which means “The Language of Ps” or if you prefer “P Language”. As it turns out, this is a song with a back-story. It’s a made-up language, similar to the Pig Latin or Egg-language (aka Eggy-Peggy or Egglish) that you might be familiar with if you went to the right school. It isn’t a proper language or even a secret code, more of a language game you can play just for the fun of it.
Like everything else in Portuguese, it has a European and a Brazilian variant. As you know, this blog is fully on-side with Europe, so we’ll stick to that. Basically, all you need to do is repeat each syllable of each word, but with a P at the start, either before the vowel or in place of the consonant. So for example the name of Luisa’s album is also her first name, Luisa, which, in Língua dos Pês is Lu–Pu–I–Pi–Sa–Pa.
It sounds quite nice in Portuguese:
da-pa ten-pen-ta-pa-ção-pão son-pon-o-po-ra-pa de-pe u-pu-ma-pa me-pe-tá-pá-for-por-a-pa*
which is why she is able to sing a song in it, but it’s awkward in English:
He-pe-llo-po My-py name-pame is-pis Col-pol-in-pin
and similarly, eggy-peggy sounds like a disaster in Portuguese
Peggor eggexeggempleggo eggestegga freggasegge
And it gets worse if you use the actual Portuguese word for egg:
Povoor ovoexovoemplovoo ovoestovoa frovoasovoe
Geggood legguck preggoneggouncegging theggat!
It’s interesting that certain types of language game suit specific languages better than others, although I admit I don’t know quite what it means.
OK, are you ready to look at that video again? Well, the one I posted last time, from the children’s TV show “Panda and Friends” was pretty toe-curling, but there’s a much better version here in an an interview with O Observador. She talks a bit about the track and the album in general, then starts singing Língua Dos Pês at about 5:42 and carries on with “Onde Foi o Avô?” (“Where did Grandpa go?”) and her single “João”.
If you need any help, there’s a translation of the song here but only into straightforward Portuguese. You’ll have to do the rest yourself!
Further reading:
Wikipedia Page about Língua dos Pês, with various dialects (includes links to other similar dialects in other languages)
The Brazilian equivalent if you’re interested is called Língua do P.
*=this is a line from a poem by José Jorge Letria. I heard it on a podcast and didn’t understand the whole thing but picked out “A poem born of an impulse, of a fever… of the sonorous temptation of a metaphor” early on. Ooh yeah, more of that please!
Music and Toilets
Listening today:
Ana Moura, because she’s coming to the Barbican Centre in September and I’m going with Mrs Lusk. I think a Ana’s possibly a bit uncool, like a Portuguese Mariah Carey, but I’m not bothered and I’m calling it homework
Luisa Sobral, because she seems like fun. I think she does songs in English as well as Portuguese, and for children as well as adults. I would dearly love to know what this is about, for example. Is it educational in some way? Just a fun thing to sing? What? I actually have a podcast of her talking about it so I’ll try and decipher that rather than take the coward’s way out and ask Mrs L.
Beatriz Gosta, because I was told it would be good to mix it up a bit with the podcasts. I listen to a lot of news and serious programming from Antena 1, but of course it’s all in one tone of voice and a narrow vocabulary, so I tried Antena 3 which is a hotbed of filth and depravity and shrieking yoof presenters. Well, it’s broadened my vocabulary, even if none of the words are usable in most conversations I’m likely to have in the queue to see Ana Moura.
Uma Tradução Nova
Tentei de traduzir um outro canção de Deolinda. Olhe o video debaixo (O vestido dela é impressionante, né? A voz também, mas o vestido… diacho!)
Parece muito mais difícil do que o ultimo. As palavras são bastante simples mas há algumas frases que no pude entender no inteiro. Ainda o título é um osso duro a roer. Espero que o resultado não é tão longe do verdade!
Song at the Side
Forgive me, learned men, aesthetes,Poetic spirits, gentle souls,For the falsity of my genius andMy wordsWhat is the scholarship that I sing,What is life, wonder,What is beauty, grace,But I just aspire to the artOf planting potatoes.Forgive me for every little thing,but there is nobody here who sings fado.If you came to hear Deolinda,You came to the wrong place.We are in a house next door.We all went to a house next door to us.I know well that there are writerly trowels,Literary plasterers and hard-working poetsAnd poets who are true masonsOf letters,And they sing in genuine art, the humble fishermanThe modest seller of fishAnd so the singer should devote herself to fishing.Forgive me for every little thing,But there is nobody here who sings fado.If you came to hear Deolinda,You came to the wrong place.We are in a house next door.We all went to a house next door to us.Why not do what I like.I sing with disgust the fact thatI am hereAnd somewhere I know someone unsuitableTakes my place.No one is happy with what he hasAnd there is always someone coming and theyAre as good as us;But that someone is usually notWho they should be.Forgive me for every little thing,but there is nobody here who sings fado.If you came to hear Deolinda,You came to the wrong place.We are in a house next door.We all went to a house next door to us.And it is the change I propose;It is not a fearful stepIn dark utopias,It is as simple as changinga radio station…I propose that they change with you andPut their lives right.
Birthday Swag
The bundle of Portuguese swag I ordered on my birthday has arrived after only five days, which is a lot better than Amazon can manage these days. Nice work FNAC!
The Postman brought me…
Dias Passados – Walking Dead Vol 1. I’ve never read any of these or seen the series so I guess I might as well use “it’s homework” as an excuse to start.
Os Imortais [Amazon link
O Pátio das Cantigas by Leonel Vieira,which is a modern remake of an old classic. I probably should have bought the old classic, but I’m an idiot so I got this instead
Canção ao Lado and Outras Histórias by Deolinda [Amazon links here
I Make Years
It’s my birthday today. Actually, unless I can finish writing this in the next minute and a half it was yesterday. Anyway… In Portuguese you can say this in two ways:
“Hoje é o meu aniversário” just means “Today is my birthday”
“Hoje faço anos” literally means “Today I make years”. I love this! It’s like my life is a machine for making time.
By the way, the Portuguese words to happy birthday are:
Parabéns a você
Nesta data querida
Muitas felicidades
Muitos anos de vida
Hoje é dia de festa
Cantam as nossas almas
Para o(a) menino(a) [Insert Your Name Here]
Uma salva de palmas
I can remember the first verse, but the second… never.
I ordered a big bag of Portuguese swag from Fnac.pt and I’ll blog about that when it arrives.
Concordância
I am becoming increasingly obsessed with Deolinda. There’s just something intoxicating about understanding a song in another language. I cottoned on to one called “Concordância“, which seems to be about grammar. Intrigued, I went looking for a translation but there wasn’t one. So I sat down and I wrote one. As it turns out, it’s quite witty. She starts with “I am a pronoun, a personal pronoun” and goes on to state what she wants from this man who is trying to subsume her into a nós. She demands “complementos diretos” which are both direct objects and also have the double meaning of complements that we use in english. “Nome” also means both “noun” and “name” and of course adjectives change depending on the noun, so you can see there’s stuff going on here that probably has more resonance if you’ve been taught Portuguese grammar at a Portuguese school.
There’s a website called lyricstranslate where people can post lyrics and others can translate them so I submitted one for Concordância and you can read it here if you’re so inclined.
Luso 