Meaningful Translated Songs MegaThread...feel free to contribute!

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Welcome back people!

Our good Friend Vinicio is going to tell us a dark and gritty tale of passion, of shady people and of death, all set in the background of Torino.

If you want to jump directly to the song hit control+f and write [song]

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This city is ancient and when I say ancient I mean 30ish B.C., when the Romans decided that they wanted a war camp close to the junction of two rivers: the Po and the Dora Riparia.

The Porte Palatine, still relatively new, only a couple of thousands of years old!

The name Torino (Little Bull) has many explanations, but I rather like the legend that says that in the Padan Plain lived a ferocious dragon that was slain by a bull, so the name kind of stuck because that's what names do, right?
It was named Augusta Taurinorum in honor fo the Roman emperor Augustus and, among other things, is rumored to be the place where Hannibal entered Italy after crossing the Alps with his war elephants, on his way to kick some Roman ass.

Real history or fairy tale?


For the Italians interested, I suggest Annibale, Un Viaggio Paolo Rumiz Ed. Feltrinelli. A pity this book wasn't translated because it has many curiosities on the life of this controversial Carthaginin general. If enough of you are interested I might try my hand translating the most curious parts but it will have to wait until I get back home (august this year).

As I was saying, Torino has had is fair share of tribulation during its long history: it has been a Longobardian Duchy, a Frank County (courtesy of Charlemangne), a County of the Kingdom of Italy, sacked by Saracens and Magyars, a Savoy Duchy, occupied by the French, obtained the Holy Veil, Capital of the Kingdom of Italy and...horrible industrial city under the heel of Giovanni Agnelli (Fiat anyone?) who opposed so much the betterment of its viability that Torino got his undeground only in 2006 (thanks the Winter Olympics the same year), and only after his death.

Torino is also known as the vertex of two magical triangles (White magic: Torino, Paris and Lyon. Black Magic: Torino, London and San Francisco), there are many oddities and weird things about this city and I'd like to share a few.

Piazza Statuto
It's rumored that the Gates of Hell are underneath this square, the execution and burial grounds for almost a thousand years were located here and there are some "a friend of my friend..." tales that tell of how the floodlights that point to the black angel monument keep dying for no reason.

The Black Angel of Piazza Statuto



Gran Madre di Dio (Great Mother of God)

This neoclassical church is built on top of a second world war shrine and is rumored to have chambers underneath where satanists would officiate their black masses.
One of the statues in front of it is looking towards where the Sacred Graal has been hidden after its many travels.

The Gran Madre - this lady knows where the graal is buried!



The Devil's Door
Apparently this magnificent door appeared overnight because an apprentice warlock fucked up his evocation and summoned Satan instead, or so says the most colorful legend surrounding the Palazzo Trucchi di Levaldigi.
There are two unsolved mysteries: the death of Emma Cochet during a masked ball and the disapperance of a Major that was found *inside* a wall some 20 years later with his head broken.

Extraodinary wood carving and a jolly fellow to boot.


Le Grotte Alchemiche
Underneath Torino is a vast tunnel system, spanning almost the whole bulk of the city. Some of this tunnels were dug during the siege, as mines and countermines, some others are very old. Palazzo Madama is where was rumored to be the entrance to the Alchemical Caves, a place where the Savoys hid and kept alchemists trasmuting gold. Some of the people that supposedly operated in the Caves are: Paracelsus (don't forget to read his alchemical vandemecum) , Nostradamus (I'm sure you have heard of him) and the infamous Conte Alessandro Cagliostro.

What a team!!!


The very Palazzo Madama hosts a ghost of royal lineage, Christine of France that either jumped from a window or was thrown!



Torino is home of the Martini, the Lavazza, the Juventus F.C., the much better Torino F.C. :p and, of course, the Fiat (that makes better cars for the exporting than to sell home...)

[BONUS RECIPE]

Bagna Caoda
The bagna caoda is a very traditional recipe of Piedmont (the region where Torino is) and is a hot dip made with anchovies, garlic and olive oil cooked a lot, the ingredients have to become a cream in order to reach the raise-the-dead-kill-the-living breath that is a curious day after side effect.
It is eaten using raw and cooked vegetables, bread, eggs, the hands of the person sitting at your left, and, given the melting power of the sauce, cutlery and wood pieces.
You don't believe me?
You have a death wish?
Cook one for yourself!

Ingredients for 4 people:
Lots of Olive oil!
1 vase (200 gr.) of anchovies (no paste!)
Two heads of garlic (or you can go all the way with one per person)

Optional: milk (only if you feel not manly/sistah enough)

Take a pot, any pot, if you have a earthenware pot you'll taste less the metal (not really important, it's gonna destroy your taste buds anyway) put it on the stove and cranck da flame up.
Topple the anchovies in the pot and add oil until they are covered by at least 3 to 4 fingers of oil, mince the garlic as fine as you can and dump them in, keep stirring occasionally until the beast gets creamy, if you really want to add the milk wait at least 45 to 60 minutes before adding it, because the anchovies melt better in just the oil.
Profit!

Potatoes are awesome with it, so is raw cabbage, peppers, radish, onions, celery, carrots and so on, your imagination is the limit.
Protip: boiled ciapinabot (topinambour or Jerusalem artichoke) are the best!

We have been suffering for your pleasure to let you feast upon this recipe, seeing as it's been at least 2 years since we haven't gorged ourselves with this fantastic recipe.



Yes, yes, but what to drink with it?
WINE!
A dish like the Bagna Caoda needs a wine that is not afraid of it.
Barbera, Barbaresco (for those who have the money), Nebbiolo (which is Barbaresco not aged) and Dolcetto (some lables can be too weak.
Enjoy!


The Langhe, where they make the above mentioned wines


[SONG]



Si sveglia male, urla in cucina
fitte alla testa, memoria in rovina
parenti in casa, cinque di sera
tempo scaduto, si alza come c'è venuto
nervi asciugati, metallo in bocca
mette il giaccone, è già nell'angolo di sotto
al bar biliardi, raduno del grifone
colossi e anfibi, tatuaggi di pitone

sussurrano di come nella notte prima
gli altri son scesi come cani da rapina
slegati in squadra a testa china toro toro
hanno spazzato dei rifiuti la banchina
nel gelo di case e caserme s'incammina,
l'aria è strana alza lo sguardo
e sente in alto un grido di poiane
il freddo lo trapassa addosso,
smazza un grammo, allunga il passo
il tipo aspetta dietro il ponte senza fretta

il fiume è giallo, lento fango d'Orinoco
scorre tra i fuochi, gli spacci, i mangiafuoco
scende il murazzo, c'è una macchina bruciata
kebab arrosto e folla a grappoli in parata
le ragazze aspettano di uscire fuori per ballare
e intanto provano le scarpe nuove e ridono da sole
dentro casa, lei lo guarda e resta lì senza parlare
fuori tutto accade anche senza di noi

nel grotto spingono e si bercian Patuan
l'anfe che sale, caldo a fiotti, nervi tesi
Envisia serve al banco acqua minerale
ondeggiano sulle ginocchia tutti uguale
guarda lo specchio e vede in fondo
che per occhi adesso ci ha due buchi neri
e nel riflesso dell'abisso vede il pozzo che era un tempo anima sua

batte una sigaretta rolla una cartina
mentre da dietro Chiurlo il rosso s'avvicina
sembra l'errore di una spinta alza la voce
è un attimo poi il tempo scorre più veloce
Big Jim lo centra con l'anfibio nel torace
rosso di sangue cade a terra braccia a croce
lo scalcia in faccia quando è steso già caduto
gli arabi scappano nel mucchio chiede aiuto
parte per sbaglio il colpo e fa, come un rumore di petardo
nel festino s'alza lento il volo del grande tacchino
chiude gli occhi e s'avvicina, sempre più vicina
l'ombra lo copre sull'asfalto senza fiato

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Translation


Wakes up messed up, shouts in the kitchen
head pangs, memory in ruin
relatives at home, five in the evening
dried up nerves, metal in the mouth
time over, he gets up how he'd came to it
wears the parka, he's already at the corner downstairs
at the Pool club Bar, the Gryphon's meeting
giants and combat boots, python tatoos

they whisper about how last night
the others came down like robbery dogs
unleashed, ganged up, head low, charging (1)
they wiped the quay free of rubbish
in the chill of houses and barracks sets off
the air is odd, he lifts his gaze
and hears from high a buzzards' call
the cold pierces him,
pushes a gram (2), leghtens his stride
the guy waits behind the bridge without hurry

the river's yellow, Orinoco's slow mud (3)
flows between firepits, peddlings, fire-eaters
steps down the embankment, there's a burning car (4)
roasted kebab, parading clusters of people (5)
the girls are waiting to go out to dance
and meanwhile they try on the new shoes and laugh by themselves
at home, she looks at him and stands by without talking
outside everything happens even without us

in the cave, they shove and squawk Patuan (6)
amphets rising, heat surges, tense nerves
At the counter, Envisia serves mineral water (7)
they all sway with the knees in the same way
looks at the mirror and sees at the bottom
that now he has two black holes as eyes
and in the reflection of the abyss he sees the pit that once was his soul

taps a cigarette, rolls a paper
while Chiurlo the Red (8) gets closer from behind
looks like it's just a shove by mistake, raises his voice
it's an instant and then time flows faster
Big Jim strikes him squarely in thechest with his boot
blood red, falls on the ground arms crossed
he kicks him in the face while he's already lying knocked out
the Arabs run away, he asks for help in the crowd
the shot goes off by mistake and sounds like a firecracker
the great turkey's flight rises up slowly in the party (9)
he shuts his eyes and it gets close, closer and closer
the shadow covers him breathless on the concrete


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I might add that, were not for the Codexian tale, this song is as difficult to convey in English as they come.
Part of what makes it special is the way he tells this story using one or two adjectives, totally irregular Italian that I had to correct while translating and also thanks for mah woman that helped correct the last parts.
A masterpiece.


1 Toro toro literal "bull bull"

2 Smazza un grammo this is VERY much Torino slang, I am not sure how to translate it, I don't know any colloquial forms for that.

3 The Orinoco is Venezuelan river, it looks fast enough to me, but if you look at the delta...


Maximum comfort - Toby lives there and is not amused.



5 The image of the Murazzi today is very different than in '80 -'90, before what the Torino council called the Bonifica (reclamation) it was a very dangerous place. Full of pushers, gangs, junkies and whatnot, it had a very colorful subculture, one of the historical joint is Giancarlo Murazzi...the club burned and flooded at least four or five times.
Anyway, one day a police cruiser decided to play it smart and drove on the quay (there are ramps that extend from the central square ) to...well nevermind the reason, the cruiser was lifted by the people and tossed in the river, the policemen were beaten and the message received. It took the fucking army to uhm..."reclaim" the place. Still to this day you can buy many things ai Muri.

Giancarlo burns, Murazzi flooded


It is beautiful, yet crowded, at night


6 Grotto, I assume he refers to the way Giancarlo looks inside...cave-like. Patuan is well, simplifying a lot, chinese.

I mean...cave-like


7 Which is as crazy as it sounds. Envisia is one of the historical barwoman of Giancarlo, she is rumored to have intoxicated half of Torino.

8 I assume Chiurlo the red is one of the Gryphon gang...

Come on, Chiurlo, look fierce!


9 I haven't got the faintest idea what a Great Turkey is, I have found so far: an editorial against crooked (bees) and/or manipulated press, a blasphemy from veneto (dindio that means turkey) and a technical tweet on the breeding of turkeys in Nigeria...take your pick.

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This was the most difficult as of yet.

Next song!

a)a song about a guy that feels like the sad owner of a city, because the girl never showed up. (no emo factor at all, also Italian traditional song, kind of)

b) a very upbeat and funny song about middle school troubles (the group is a cornerstone of comical music)

c)a song in where a guy is risking insanity waiting for her girl to give it to him (it is funny, also historical stuff again.)

BONUS VIDEO

This song was heavily influenced by Swordfishtrombones of Tom Waits, Vinicio is inspired by good people.

BONUS IMAGE

A very Codexian picture (1860) of Torino as seen from the hills.

Thanks, I'm trying to chose not good musics from Brazil, but great brazilian songs, that shows our culture and music styles...so maybe I'll do "Águas de Março" before going to Raul Seixas...

And It's better to keep all the songs in one thread, that way everyone sees all and it gets a good mix, instead of doing BR songs/ IT songs/ FR songs and only some getting viewed at all...anyway, credits for you for the great idea!

About the thread title, you can no longer change it by yourself since the forum update, but you can ask a Mod, like JarlFrank, to change it for whatever you want. Also, I think this should be moved to the Library Forum...

Mh, I'll send a message to the next world dictator.
to you, keep the songs coming, there is never too much culture around.

Humm...just a guess, but it seems to be something related to death, no? Reading the original lyrics with my meager italian skills and translating it to portuguese, it could mean something like 'and death came to them all"...what makes me wonder is why "slowly"...

Also, I vote A.

That is what is puzzling, I'd have said it was about the soul or death, but then the two last lines are about how he dies. It can be a reference to a number of things, because among the things Capossela gets inspired from, literature is one of them. I'll try, if I can, to clarify it with somebody else.

After a while, I think that starting with Zé Ramalho was a mistake, as I skipped what IMHO, is the most beatiful and "brazilian" song ever made, Águas de Março (Waters of March), by Tom Jobim.

EDIT: Silly me, forgot to introduce Tom Jobim...let's just say he is the biggest composer brazilian music ever had. The guy IS Bossa Nova incarnate, he composed the famous "Girl from Ipanema", among countless others, made huge sucess in the whole world, sang together with Frank Sinatra and even released some duet albums with him.

Águas de Março is a masterpiece, and was born like one. Mr. Jobim was resting, on a small farm in the rural side of Rio de Janeiro. He had just composed a complex song, was tired, and wanted relax a little. It was the last days of 72's march, the end of brazilian summer, and in some regions here than means rain almost everyday around 17-18 PM. It's a very beatiful rain, as the clouds are clear, the raindrops are vey thin and the sun keeps shinning while the sunset begins...



Tom decided to take a walk around the farm, and started to mentaly notice the things around him; the stick on the ground, the stones, the road...together with the sound of the rain, that triggered a song idea on his head. He rushed back to the house, and wrote the whole lyrics on a bread paper bag. The next day he went back to Rio and finished the song in one afternoon.



He released the song on a solo album, but the real sucess came when Ellis Regina joined him for a duet on the album "Elis & Tom", in 74. From that point on, the song became a part of Brazil. ANY BR will recognize the "É pau, é pedra..." line, it's been chosen many times the best brazilian song ever made, and Tom later made an english version of it, that he played on the Montreal Jazz Festival in 84, but that doesn't come close to the original. Art Garfunkel made a cover too, but gringos can't samba, his version is kind of depressive...

Anyway, here we go!



This is a video of the studio version, and it's perfect. The chemistry between them is amazing, with all the laughs and improvisations at the end, that were kept on the song.

[SONG]

É pau é pedra
É o fim do caminho
É um resto de toco
É um pouco sozinho...

É um caco de vidro
É a vida é o sol
É a noite é a morte
É um laço é o anzol...

É peroba do campo
É o nó da madeira
Caingá, Candeia
É o matita-pereira...

É madeira de vento
Tombo da ribanceira
É um mistério profundo
É o queira ou não queira...

É o vento ventando
É o fim da ladeira
É a viga é o vão
Festa da Cumeeira...

É a chuva chovendo
É conversa ribeira
Das águas de março
É o fim da canseira...

É o pé é o chão
É a marcha estradeira
Passarinho na mão
Pedra de atiradeira...

É uma ave no céu
É uma ave no chão
É um regato é uma fonte
É um pedaço de pão...

É o fundo do poço
É o fim do caminho
No rosto um desgosto
É um pouco sozinho...

É um estrepe é um prego
É uma ponta é um ponto
É um pingo pingando
É uma conta é um conto...

É um peixe é um gesto
É uma prata brilhando
É a luz da manhã
É o tijolo chegando...

É a lenha é o dia
É o fim da picada
É a garrafa de cana
Estilhaço na estrada...

É o projeto da casa
É o corpo na cama
É o carro enguiçado
É a lama é a lama...

É um passo é uma ponte
É um sapo é uma rã
É um resto de mato
Na luz da manhã...

São as águas de março
Fechando o verão
E a promessa de vida
No teu coração...

É uma cobra é um pau
É João é José
É um espinho na mão
É um corte no pé...

São as águas de março
Fechando o verão
É a promessa de vida
No teu coração...

É pau é pedra
É o fim do caminho
É um resto de toco
É um pouco sozinho...

É um passo é uma ponte
É um sapo é uma rã
É um belo horizonte
É uma febre terçã...

São as águas de março
Fechando o verão
É a promessa de vida
No teu coração...

-Pau, -Edra, -Im, -Inho
-Aco, -Idro, -Ida, -Ol

São as águas de março
Fechando o verão
É a promessa de vida
No teu coração...

[ENGLISH]

While on "Admirável Gado Novo" I cheated a little and just did some changes on a translation I found, on this one i'm doing it from scrath. It's weird, but I can't find a good translation on this one, and Jobim english version has some huge changes on the lyrics...so I am mixing my translation with his whenever able, I hope I don't screw this up.

Waters of March

It's wood, it's stone
It's the end of the road
It's the rest of a stump
It's a little alone

It's a sliver of glass
It's life, it's the sun
It's night, it's death
It's the tie, it's the hook (A)

It's peroba do campo (B)
It's the knot on the wood
Caingá, candeia
It's matita-pereira (C)

The wood of the wind,
It's a fall from the cliff,
It's a deep mystery,
It's is nothing at all

It's the wind, blowing (D)
It's the end of the slope
It's a beam, it's a span
Festa da Cumeeira... (E)

It's rain, raining
It's a talk in the river side
(about) the waters of March
It's the end of the tiredness

It's the foot, it's the ground
It's the trail on the road
(Little) bird in the hand (F)
Stone in the slingshot

It's a bird in the sky
It's a bird on the ground
It's a stream, it's a fountain
It's a piece of bread ...

It's the bottom of the well
It's the end of the way
A woe in the face
It's a little alone

It's a torn, it's a spike,
It's a point, it's a dot
It's a drip droping,
It's a bead, it's a tale

It's a fish, it's a gesture
It's the silver shining
It's the morning light
It's a brick coming (G)

It's the firewood, it is the day
It's the worstest after the worst
It's a bottle of sugar-cane (H)
Fragments on the road ...

It's the project of the house
It's a body in the bed
It's the car that go stuck
It's the mud, it is the mud

It's a footstep, it is a bridge
It's a frog, it is a frog (I)
It's a rest of bush
under the morning light

They are the waters of March,
Closing the summer
It's the promise of life
in your heart

It is a snake, it's a stick of wood
It's João, it's José
It's a thorn in the hand
It's a cut in the foot

They are the waters of March,
closing the summer
It's the promise of life
in your heart

It's wood, it's stone
It's the end of the road
It's the rest of a stump
It's a little alone

It's a step, it's a bridge
It's a frog, it's a frog
It's a beautiful horizon
It's a lasting fever (J)

They are the waters of March,
closing the summer
It's the promise of life
in your heart

-Esto, -Oco, -Ouco, -Inho
-Oite, -Orte, -Aço, -Zol... (K)

They are the waters of March,
closing the summer
and the promise of life
in your heart

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(A) A fishing hook, mind you. For some reason Jobim made that part a lot darker in the translation, changing it to "it's a trap, it's a gun" :ackbar feelings:

(B) Peroba do campo, Caingá, Candeia are all native brazilian trees.

(C) Matinta-pereira is a small brazilian bird, and also part of the folklore. It's said to be the winged form that native shamans (pajés) took when seeking vengeance, and they make a long cry that means death. Tobim it's obviously talking about the bird though... I hope.

(D) Here is like Toro Toro, "vento ventando", something like the "wind winding". It poetic way of saying the wind blowing. Same thing he will do on the next verse, "rain rainning", but that one works better translated.

(E) "Festa da Cumeeira" it's a party that people do when they finish a biulding, especially one made with the help of others, as a way of saying thanks.

(F) Here a little BR language explanation is needed. BR Portugues is THE hardest non-oriental language to learn, because of the countles rules we have and also because of the freedom the language gives us. One very confusing thing (to gringos) is how "big & small" works. While we can say "grande X" (big X), the most common way is to add "ão" and "inho" at the end. So you can have pássaro (bird), pássarinho (small bird), pássarão (big bird); adding the "inho" at the end also makes the word "cute". Some regions like Minas Gerais everyone uses that all the time, as a kind & gentle way of speaking...this lead to them going beyond when talking kindly about small things, saying things like "pássarinhozinho"...

(G) This one will be hard for non-rural people, it's a fisherman selling his fish by the morning while going home (the brick coming).

(H) Here he is talking about 'cachaça', our equivalent to vodka, made from sugar-cane. Is what we use to make caipirinha, BTW.

(I) Stupid english has only one word for frog!

(J) Here he uses "terçã", which means "that last 3 days".

(K) The official story here goes that the original song ended in the last verse, but were having so much fun they started to improvise , and kept going with those abapebepaaaa while laughing, and it worked so well they kept it on the song.

I would say the younger folks have a hard time understanding the metaphors. The started in the 80s and early 90s, when school literature textbooks, which traditionally consisted of Confucius classics and other classical texts, were replaced by modern books and such written by modern writers. That turned Classical Chinese texts into unintelligible gibberish for most people. So anyone who is born prior to the period, should definitely be to understand the message with relative ease. My mother, for example, stopped going to school when she was 14 I believe, and despite that, she understands this piece perfectly.

a)a song about a guy that feels like the sad owner of a city, because the girl never showed up. (no emo factor at all, also Italian traditional song it's cover, a cover I say!)

b) a very upbeat and funny song about middle school troubles (the group is a cornerstone of comical music)

c)a song in where a guy is risking insanity waiting for her girl to give it to him (it is funny, also historical stuff again.)

Votes are:

a) 1
b) 0
c) 0

I will move to Perth before starting on the next song translation, so there is enough time for moar votes to come in.

anybody feels like contributing with songs in their language, feel free, the more the merrier!

Okay, just finished talking with the only person I know he would know something about this line and...he doesn't know shit!

But I will persevere.

a) 2
b) 0
c) 0

I might, and I repeat might post the next update from Melbourne airport, almost 15 hours of wait (don't you love backpacking?), but I need a powerpoint 'cause the laptop's battery is fucked.

Ok, welcome back to another BR song!

Today I shall introduce you to the work of Jorge Ben Jor! A glorious brazilian, soccer fanatic and musical genius. He started in the 60's with a single song: "Mas que Nada", that made history and became the soundtrack to that era in Brazil. Latter he did some very experimental albums in the 70's and 80's, exalting the black & "mulato" culture in Brazil.



I was gonna show one of his best songs, Mas Que Nada, but then Youtube told me that the Black Eyed Peas made a cover of it...I don't know how to feel about this. It's a shitty "rap cover", they just play the music and say some bullshit over it. But it means that is not that interesting anymore to present here, even though is one of Brazil's most famous song.

So, instead here is another of his great works, "País Tropical" (Tropical Country), recorded in 1969. I WAS going to post his original recording, but Carnaval is next week, so I decided to put my monocle apart and show you guys the the TR00 METAL CARNAVAL version of the song, sung by the queen of brazil, Ivete Sangalo, THE most popular artist here in the last 2 decades.

This is from a show in 2006, on a sold-out Maracanã (one of our biggest stadiums), with more than 60 thousand people. The DVD from the show is also one of the best-seeling DVD's of all time in Brazil, so I guess it's agreat way to share a monocled popular culture with you guys. Play it loud and feel the rythm:



The best video I found aso have a medley in the end with 2 more songs, hope you don't mind.
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Moro!
Num País Tropical
Abençoado por Deus
E bonito por natureza
(Mas que beleza!)
Em fevereiro (Em fevereiro!)
Tem carnaval (Tem carnaval!)
Eu tenho um fusca e um violão
Sou Flamengo, tenho uma nêga
Chamada Tereza...

Sambaby, Sambaby
Sou um menino
De mentalidade mediana
(Pois é!)
Mas assim mesmo feliz da vida
Pois eu não devo nada aninguém
(Pois é!)
Pois eu sou feliz
Muito feliz, comigo mesmo...

[Chorus again]

Sambaby, Sambaby!
Eu posso não ser
Um Band Leader
(Pois é!)
Mas assim mesmo lá em casa
Todos meus amigos
Meus camaradinhas
Me respeitam
(Pois é!)
Essa é a razão da simpatia
Do poder, do algo mais
E da alegria...

-----------------------ENGLISH----------------------------------------

I live!
In a tropical country
Blessed by God
And beautiful by nature (A)
(What a beauty!)
In February (in February!)
we have Carnaval (have carnaval!) (B)
I have a VW Beetle and a guitar (C)
I'm Flamengo (D), have a black woman (E)
Called Tereza ...

Sambaby, Sambaby (F)
I am a boy
Simple minded
(Yeah!)
But even so happy
For I do not owe anything to anyone
(Yeah!)
Well I'm happy
Very happy with myself ...

[Chorus]

Sambaby, Sambaby!
I may not be
A Band Leader
(Yeah!)
But anyway back home
All my friends
My buddies
Respect me
(Yeah!)
This is the reason of the sympathy
of the power, of the something more,
and the happiness...

---------------------------------------------------------------

(A) This is the pride of any BR, those words have been used ad infinitun in other songs, poetry, ads, slogans, books and anything BR-related. Ten times better than "God Bless America".

(B) Carnaval man, Carnaval!



It's next week BTW, so I won't have to work until thursday.

(C) Fusca is how we call the VW Beetle. That car is INSANELY popular here (thanks Hitler) since the 50's, to the point that our president Itamar asked VW to start producing then again in 93 due popular demand.

(D) "Flamengo" is a soccer team from Rio de Janeiro, one of the biggest in the country.

(E) Jorge says "nêga", which would literally translate to "female nigger", but in Brazil is just a cute way of saying black woman. Racism is not really much of a issue here, since everyone is a different (brown) color. The whitest man on Brazil can call the blackest man "Negão" (big nigger), the guy will just call him "Alemão" (German - How we call white people) and laugh.

(F) Literally Samba + baby. Thanks to american movies, calling girls "baby" was popular at that time here.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Hope you guys enjoyed!

As for the next song, I will finally do a Raul Seixas song, but I can't decide which of his musics to share, so let's vote! Of his most interesting works we have:

A) Gita - Raul describes God mixing the Hindu Bhagavad-Gitã with the Alexter Crowley's Thelema.
B) Ouro de Tolo (Fool's Gold) - Raul sings about how shitty is to live a "good" life.
C) Tente outra vez (Try again) - A powerful song about never giving up, led to the creation of the "I'm brazilian and never give up" motto.

Cool bro, I need to sleep now but I'll have a look tomorrow morning more in-depth, how exciting the carneval man! near my place people bash their faces out of each other in the oranges battle, will probably, mini-update this settling-our-differences during a major festivity.

The vote is difficult man, I'm interested in A but B looks the more cultural of the two...so I'll go with B!

Edit: do you count non-codexian votes? if so, mah woman votes A

Both A and B are great choices and appear on a list Rolling Stone made of the best BR songs of all times...I really coudn't choose too...

And vostra donna voto è molto apprezato.
Hope I wrote that righ...I can read & speak italian ok, but not write...

It's a fantastic song, bro!
The ska + djambes (not sure about the name of them in Brazil) arrangement is just awesome. If a song makes you shake your ass in the library they got it right.
Love the medley at the end. Man are you like excited and shit? If I were you I would, I don't know go crazy? But we will eventually go to Brazil (there is a esperanto-speaking community there, we will go there for uh, various reasons, but i don't speak it) so, just you wait, bro!

I understand the Italian you just used but you're being too polite, you are a bro so it will become Il voto della tua donna e' molto apprezzato.
Did you know that the Genovese dialect has a very similar cadence to Brazilian?

Much bro.
Go out and carnaval the fuck out of it!

A

Yeah, the Rotary keeps teaching Esperanto in some places, but you won't find much people speaking it. Honestly, it's easier to just speak italian and have some good will. The writing may be tottaly different, but the sound is very similar, if you speak slowly a average BR will understand.

Spanish and Italian are easy for us to understand, sometimes on Tv they won't even use subtitles when in interviews. For instance, look how similar it is:

Il voto della tua donna e' molto apprezzato
O voto de sua dona é muito apreciado

Often when in doubt of a word, we use the "brasilian way" and just say the portuguese word with a heavy accent. For spanish we call this "Portunhol" (português+espanhol), and for italian "Pomarola", because of the pseudo-italian Pomarola ads we had here. I used that a lot in Rome and was super-effective.

For some reason, french people can't understand our glorious language improvisations...

We are going to Bona Espero the esperantist community located in Brazil - Alto Paraíso de Goiás
Not really because of the language, but since mah woman's parents met because they were both learning esperanto (mom Czech, dad Italian) we will go and meet the guy who taught her father since is one of the founders. While we are at it...well you wouldn't want by any chance meet, wouldn't you?

Yeah, I am aware of the similarities of italian, portuguese and spanish, we were able to converse amiably with a spanish couple in our native language some months ago.

Funny the Pomarola bit, if you change it into pummarola becomes Naples's dialect for tomato!

I speak french and I can tell you that the sounds are almost totally different, even if we share more or less the same grammatical structure.

As our good bro felipepepe reminded us, it's about time for the CARNIVAL!
I decided then to add to this thread a Cultural Corner in where I will rant about stuff.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Italian Carnivals

A pagan tradition that the Church was not able to eradicate, no matter how harsh the punishment, the Carnival is something that is fading away in the Italian's population heart.
Youngs just go gorge themselves with the many traditional recepies that we have, throw to each other streamers and stink bombs in equal measure, and the ageless tradition to spray the freshmen with colored stuff and sometimes dump them in a garbage bin.

Bugies! literal: lies, this northern Italy's typical biscuit is fried and can be filled with choccolate, custard and jam.


But we are not here to talk about this!
Carnival in Italy can be a fascinating occurence and while you get out of the rubbish and clean up, you might be musing where to go to experience it fully.

Carnevale di Venezia

This ancient, ancient festivity has been around for...oh a thousand years, give or take. It is a rip off of the Panem et Circenses (Bread and Games) policy already extremely popular during ancient Rome, where if you lost a province, you wanted to tax the people or just slaughter whole civilizations you could throw a party to cover it all up...with even more blood flowing!
Those of you who watched the Gladiator movie might have an idea of what I'm talking about (watch Ben Hur instead!), but I assure you that during the history horribler (I claim poetical licence on this!) things have happened.

There is no boat like the gondola - Some of this masks can be a bit kitsch



As I was saying the doubtful Serenissima government was throwing parties left and right to cover up some stuff happening and what better way to assassinate while during a huge city-wide masked party?
Now, there are other reasons for the birth of this fairly spectacular tradition and you can read more information here, don't forget to browse the masks, some can be crazy!

Carnevale di Viareggio

Viareggio is a small city in Tuscany, some kilometers north of Pisa.
This carnival is relatively recent, it will be the 139th edition this year and was born becouse some merchants were fed up about the strangling taxes (or so they say, merchants always complain about taxes!) so they decided to throw a masked protest, but with a twist: HUGE carnival wagons!

Did I say huge?


This is fantastic because in order to build this wagons, almost the whole population used to cooperate (you'd need sculptors, blacksmiths, carpenters and so on) making this event a city-wide effort, with of course, liters of good wine and platters of food flowing.
Given the relatively small size of the city and the fact that is one of the few urban places that have almost none overhung electrical cables, some of this wagons reach 3 to 4 stories high!

Viareggio's carnival is satirical to say the least - Dario Fo's wagon! Among other things, this man is a Nobel Prize of literature.



Carnevale d'Ivrea

Ivrea is a small city north of Torino, it has become famous for its battle of the oranges. This carnival was inspired by the tale of a female miller against an evil baron that claimed the jus primae noctis, the right of nobles to sleep with the bride the first wedding night. (William Wallace anyone?) Well, this young woman wanted none of this shit and just beheaded the bastard.
This inspired a revolt and the populace stormed the castle, winning against the guards.
At first, during the early carnivals they were using beans, throwing them around in the streets.

If you want to do it at home you'd need to battle-train the horses...

Then they thought: "but why don't we try to massacre each other with frozen cold oranges, use makeshift war chariots and cover the streets with pulped oranges?" And so this stimulating carnival culmination was born. Each war chariot is composed of an orangers team that wears kevlar helmets and goggles, since they are besieged from the very start...if you do go there, do not go underneath the chariots, they WILL massacre you, if you are there it's open season.

Ouch!

That's it for this Cultural Corner update!

As usual, feel free to contribute.

Edit: I can't into spelling

So, 2 votes for A and one for B...

I tihink I'm gonna do A then, should be more entertaining. Gonna start translating cause the lyrics are HUGE, I hope we get to page 3 until then.

Man, you are going to one of the most nicest places I've ever been. Cool people, great food and beatiful landscape. A little too hippie for my tastes, but great for visiting anyway. You will probably arrive in Brasília, that is a nice place, but not much a city per se, just a bunch of goverment buildings and expensive apartments.

Sadly, since Brazil is fucking immense, that region is quite isolated from anywhere else. I would like to meet, but I live in São Paulo (A) more than 1.000 Km away from Alto Paraíso (B):



Since you are coming from so far away, I would recomend to try to visit at least one big "real" city, like Salvador or Rio de Janeiro, to have a real taste of the country. São Paulo is great, but it's very different from what people would expect from Brazil, I don't recommend coming here if you haven't seen other places before...

Also, BR TIP: Eat EVERYTHING, especially in the morning. You gonna wake up with a basket of Pão de Queijo and Fubá cake...ahh....so good.

*mouth is watering big time* Yes, I want da food! Australia is fine and shit but they cannot into good food.

Also Rio is overrated, brasilia I've been told is not so nice, I know somebody in Sao Paolo I want to meet and I'll have a couple of years to spare.
Why so much resistance, good bro?
If it happens will happen.
If not, keep broing!


P.S. I'm not drunk, just tired for the flight. will work on da song someday this week...it's not that people are tearing their hair out, huh?

Welcome back!

The relocation to Perth has been succesfull (finally a weather I can cope with, unlike Melbourne) and I had enough time to work on the song you people voted:

a) a song about a guy that feels like the sad owner of a city, because the girl never showed up. (no emo factor at all, also Italian traditional song, it's a cover, a cover I say!)

Before you jump on the bandwagon, know that the group who made the second cover is a gathering of incliners from different Italian bands.

Giuliano Palma & The Bluebeaters!


Marvin, the dog, was an official member of the band but died in '06



Giuliano Palma (the bald guy in the picture next to the dog) was having a moderate success with his rap group the Casino Royale (no relation with the movie), but he felt he needed to be even moar show-off.
After all, he always loved to "move it" but he seldom had the possibility to do so, not to mention that his songs were getting a bit shitty and uninspired.

So, he met with some good people: I Fratelli di Soledad (ska-rock) and the Africa Unite (raggae-rocksteady) and decided to improvise a band for a one-night stand at the then unknown underground joint in Torino, the Hiroshima Mon Amour.

The place that started it all


Little did they know that, creating a band and throwing incline in the face of the unwashed masses would gather them no followers.
Yeah, the idea was great, the public danced and all, but given the attention span of the Italian populace, especially in Torino, and their sound almost too good, nothing good came out.
There was that little something missing...

It was then that the inspiration clobbered them with a powerful lightining surge
Why don't we play original instruments used by the ska-bands in the sixties, make covers like there is no tomorrow and try to improve the horrible English and off-tune voice of Giuliano?

And it was a success!
To this day, Giuliano Palma pronounces English horribly and he never really learned how to sing properly, but who cares, the sound is magnificent! No, better yet: MAJESTIC ®

He's got the moves!



The song is the cover of Tutta Mia la Citta' of the Equipe '84 (an Italian beat group of the '62), which is a cover of Blackberry Way of The Move, a well-known British rock band.
Since Italians in the sixties couldn't really into English (not that they can now), The Italian cover is better known than the original English one






No, non verrai
l'orologio nella strada ormai
corre troppo per noi

So dove sei
tu non stai correndo qui da me
sei rimasta con lui.

Le luci bianche nella notte
sembrano accese per me
è tutta mia la città….

Tutta mia la città…
un deserto che conosco
tutta mia la città…
questa notte un uomo piangerà….

No, non verrai
fumo un'altra sigaretta e poi
me ne andrò senza te.

Porto con me
un'immagine che non vedrò
tu che corri da me

da un'automobile che passa
qualcuno grida va a casa
è tutta mia la città….

Tutta mia la città…
un deserto che conosco
tutta mia la città...
questa notte un uomo piangerà….

Tu non ci sei
io mi sono rassegnato ormai
tu non eri per me

Tu sei con lui
cosa importa io non soffro più
forse è meglio così.

Goodbye Blackberry Way
I can't see you
I don't need you
Goodbye Blackberry Way
Sure to want me back another day



Translation:

No, you won't come
the clock in the road, at this time
runs too fast for us

I know where you are,
you're not running here to me,
you stayed with him.

The white lights in the night
look like they're on for me
the city is all mine

The city is all mine
a desert I know
The city is all mine
tonight a man will cry...

No, you won't come
I smoke another cigarette and then
I'll leave without you

I bring with me
an image that I won't see
you running to me

from a car passing by
somebody shouts: go home!
The city is all mine...

The city is all mine
a desert I know
The city is all mine
tonight a man will cry...

You are not here
I am resigned at this time
you were not for me

You are with him
what does it matter, I don't suffer anymore
maybe it`s better this way

Goodbye Blackberry Way
I can't see you
I don't need you
Goodbye Blackberry Way
Sure to want me back another day


Being the bros that they are, the Bluebeaters added a verse of the original song.


[Bonus Videos]

17 minutes of Giuliano Palma & The Bluebeaters.
Shaky camera, horrible audio, but this is why people go to see them!


Blackberry Way by The Move


[Bonus Image]

Gothic anyone?




Read a partial history here
Gargoyle pictures here
Yes but why this?
The 1st bonus video is a concert made in front of this cathedral!

That's it for this update.

I have recovered from the infernal translation of Il Tanco del Murazzo, so it's time for a difficult one again!


Next Song!

a) a policeman sings about his perilous life against the mafia (+1 politics and recent Italian history)

b) a song about how strong you have to be to stay honest in Italy and keep a family alive (+1 Italian social problems)

Same here.

And bump to the next page, for my next update lyrics are fucking huge...

Bump da thread!

a) 2
b) 0

...and re-bump?
man, go for it!