Lyrics from “As Rosas Não Falam” (The Roses Don’t Talk) by Cartola
Album: Cartola II (1976)
—
My heart beats again with hope
Because the summer is coming to an end
Finally
I return to the garden
With the certainty that I should cry
Because I know well that you don’t want to come back to me
I wail to the roses
How silly, the roses don’t talk
The roses simply exude the perfume that they steal from you
You ought to come
To see my joyless eyes
And, who knows, you might dream my dreams
At last
(Repeat)
— Interpretation —
As the story goes, this song was inspired by an exchange between Cartola and his wife, Zica. Zica planted a rosebush in the couple’s garden in Rio de Janeiro, and after some time passed, she looked out one morning to see the bush in full bloom. Thrilled, she asked Cartola how so many roses had bloomed, and he responded, “How should I know? The roses don’t talk.”
Cartola was inspired by his poetic response and wrote one of his greatest successes as a “birthday present” to himself, a few days before his sixty-seventh birthday.
Although he was a popular sambista since his youth, Cartola never achieved much commercial or financial success, and only recorded his first LP in 1974, at age sixty-five. He said he had been losing motivation – seeing everyone around him recording LPs – and couldn’t even believe he had finally recorded a disk until he held it in his hands. Moved by the achievement, he eagerly went back to composing and came out with his second LP, with “As Rosas Não Falam,” in 1976.
The main source for this post was Cartola: Os Tempos Idos, by Marília Barboza da Silva and Arthur de Oliveira Filho.
Post by Victoria Broadus (About)
Lyrical Brazil 