Lyrics from “Raízes” by Renato Teixeira (~1992)
Madrugada na campina // Dawn on the plain
Manhã menina // Tender morning
Tá na flor do meu jardim // Is on the flower in my garden
Hoje é domingo // Today is Sunday
Me desculpe eu tô sem pressa // Forgive me I’m in no hurry
Nem preciso de conversa // I have no need for conversation
Não há nada prá cumprir // No obligations to fulfill
Passar o dia // Passing the day
Ouvindo o som de umas viola // Listening to the sound of some violas
Eu quero que o mundo agora // I want the world now
Se mostre pros bem-te-vi // To show itself to the bem-te-vi (Great Kiskadee)
Mando daqui das bandas do rural lembranças // I send out from here, from the rural parts, remembrances
Vibrações da nova hora // Vibrations of the new hour
Prá você que não tá aqui // For you, who’s not here
é uma lição do universo // Is a lesson of the universe
Que nos ensina // That teaches us
Que é preciso renascer // That it’s necessary to be reborn
O novo amanhece // The new dawns
O novo amanhece // The new dawns
Lá no terreiro varrido // Out on the brushed-earth yard
E o orvalho brilha // And the dew shines
Como pérolas ao sol // Like pearls in the sun
Tem uma sombra// There’s a shadow
Que caminha pras montanhas // That creeps toward the mountains
Se enfiando feito alma // Slipping like a soul
Por dentro do matagal // Into the bush
E quanto mais // And the more
A luz vai invadindo a terra // The sun spreads over the earth
O que a noite não revela // What the night doesn’t reveal
O dia mostra prá mim // The day shows to me
A rádio agora // The radio now
Tá tocando Rancho Fundo// Is playing Rancho Fundo
Somos só eu e mundo // It’s just me and the world
E tudo começa aqui // And everything begins here
é uma lição do universo // Is a lesson of the universe
Que nos ensina // That teaches us
Que é preciso renascer // That it’s necessary to be reborn
O novo amanhece // The new dawns
O novo amanhece // The new dawns
For the second post on songs about Sundays, here’s one of my favorite songs from a beautiful album of caipira, or folk-country, music, Renato Teixeira & Pena Branca e Xavantinho: Ao Vivo em Tatuí (1992). The song was composed by Renato Teixeira, one of Brazil’s most prolific singer-songwriters in the caipira genre. That genre is associated with the countryside of the central and southeastern states of São Paulo, Paraná, Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do Sul. But tellingly, Teixeira was born in the city — in Santos, São Paulo. Songs like “Raízes,” or “Roots,” are typical of the caipira revival of the 1980s and ’90s, of which Teixeira was a driving force (for more on that, see this previous post): As more and more rural migrants made their way to greater São Paulo or adjacent cities such as Santos — Brazil became a majority urban country around 1970, and was nearly 70 percent urban by 1980; and greater São Paulo exploded from 2.6 million in 1950, to 8.1 million in 1970, to 15.4 million in 1991 — these popular songs expressed deep longing and cultural affinity for a simpler bygone country life that many may never have experienced firsthand.
The caipira style was typically performed by pairs of brothers, perfectly exemplified by Pena Branca (1939-2010) e Xavantinho (1942-1999), who, like many such duos, began singing together as children on local radio programs in their hometown of Uberlândia, Minas Gerais. In 1968, they moved to São Paulo to pursue a career in music together. There, they were helped by popular performers such as Teixeira and Milton Nascimento, whose “Cio da Terra,” composed with Chico Buarque, they popularized with a 1980 recording. (Here they are performing that song with Milton in 1987: https://youtu.be/3BDTbOnC8-I)
The brothers resisted crossing over into the more commercial sertanejo, or (modern) country, genre, and continued performing together in the traditional caipira style until Xavantinho’s early death in 1999, at age 56, from complications from a motorcycle accident five years earlier. The violas they played, and that are referenced in the lyrics, are the ten-string guitar typical of this style.
Lyrical Brazil 