“Tocando em Frente” and “Amora”

Lyrics from “Tocando em Frente” by Renato Teixeira and Almir Sater, released by Maria Bethânia (1990)

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Good Audio Version (Renato Teixeira)
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I go slowly because I’ve already been in a rush
And I wear this smile because I’ve already cried too much
Today I feel stronger, happier – who knows
I carry with me only the certainty that I know very little, or I know nothing

Getting to know mannerisms and mornings
The flavor of  almonds and apples
A lot of love is necessary to push forward
Peace is necessary to be able to go on
And rain is necessary for blooming

I think that to make good on life may be simply
To understand the march, and go playing ahead
Like an old cattleman driving the oxen, I go on driving the days
Down the long road, I go, I’m a road

Each one of us composes our own story
And each carries within the gift of being able to be happy
Everyone loves one day, everyone cries, one day we arrive, and the next we leave.

— Interpretation —

In spite of having been born in the city of Santos, São Paulo, Renato Teixeira is one of Brazil’s most prolific singer-songwriters in the caipira genre — a country-folk style of music from (or about) the hinterlands of the states of São Paulo, Paraná, Minas Gerais,  Goias, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul.  This rural genre is closely and often indistinguishably related to classic country music in Brazil, known as sertanejo. (Sertanejo has taken on a different meaning in recent years, with the boom in popularity of pop sertanejo duos). Teixeira’s song “Romaria,” a sensation when sung by Elis Regina in 1977, is credited with having changed the connotations of the word caipira and cut away at prejudices against caipiras in Brazil. TV Globo used the song in its miniseries Carga Pesada, and the revered poet Haroldo de Campos told Veja that he regarded the song as one of the best of the decade.

“Tocando em Frente” became another of Teixeira’s greatest hits. He wrote it with Almir Sater, a singer-songwriter and actor with deeper caipira roots, from Campo Grande, Mato Grosso do Sul. The song has been recorded by a long list of popular Brazilian singers.

Teixeira, born May 20, 1945, spent much of his childhood in Ubatuba, on the northern coast of São Paulo state, before moving at age fourteen to Taubaté, São Paulo.  In his early twenties he began working in radio in Taubaté and was introduced to sertanejo music.  He entered his first MPB Festival in 1967, with “Dadá Maria,” sung by Gal Costa, which qualified for the finals and is an example of his more classic MPB compositions from the late 1960s. In 1972, after participating in an album on Brazilian music from the West, Midwest and Southwest, he began to incorporate more caipira themes and musical elements into his songs.  The success of “Romaria” solidified his mastery of the genre.

In 1985 Teixeira played on the album Grandes Cantores Sertanejos (Great Country Singers), and in 1992, he recorded a live album, Ao Vivo em Tatuí, with one of Brazil’s most beloved caipira duos, the brothers Pena Branca and Xavantinho, for which they received the prestigious Sharp Award for best regional album of the year. The album features songs like “Tocando em Frente,” “Amora” (below),  Caetano Veloso’s “Canto do povo de um lugar,” and “O Cio da Terra,” by Chico Buarque and Milton Nascimento.

A few notes about the translation:  In an attempt to keep some of the alliteration from the original Portuguese in the second stanza (in English), I stretched the translation a bit, using “almonds” instead of “doughs,” which would be a literal translation of “massas,” and “mannerisms” for “manhas,” which would be closer to something like “quirks,” “caprices,” or “cunning.”  In the Portuguese version, all four words begin with “m” and are much more similar phonetically. “Tocar” in Portuguese means both to play (an instrument) and to drive (cattle), so in the second to last stanza it is used throughout in the Portuguese version, while the verb changes in English. “Tocar” can also mean simply “to go on,” which allows for another possible interpretation of “ir tocando em frente” more along the lines of “keep on keepin’ on.” Finally, in some versions, like the audio version provided above, the lyrics differ slightly, saying, “I feel that to carry on in life may be simply…”

Lyrics from “Amora” by Renato Teixeira (1979)

Good Audio Version

After the curve in the road, there’s a guava tree
I feel my eyes water every time I pass by
I feel my heart wounded, wrapped in solitude
I think the fruit of the heart must be sweet

I’m going to tell your father that you date…
I’m going to tell your mother that you ignore me
I’m going to paint my lips the red of the blackberries
That grow over yonder, in the yard of the house where you live

Lyrics in Portuguese: “Tocando em Frente”

Depois da curva da estrada
Tem um pé de araçá
Sinto vir água nos olhos
Toda vez que passo lá

Sinto o coração flechado
Cercado de solidão
Penso que deve ser doce
A fruta do coração

Vou contar para o seu pai
Que você namora
Vou contar pra sua mãe
Que você me ignora

Vou pintar a minha boca
Do vermelho da amora
Que nasce lá no quintal
Da casa onde você mora