Cidade Lagoa

Lyrics from “Cidade Lagoa” by Cícero Nunes and Sebastião Fonseca; recorded by Moreira da Silva (1959)

Esta cidade, que ainda é maravilhosa // This city, which is still marvelous
Tão cantada em verso e prosa // So often sung in prose and verse
Desde os tempo da vovó // Since grandma’s day

Tem um problema, crônico renitente // Has a stubborn, chronic problem
Qualquer chuva causa enchente // The slightest rain causes a flood
Não precisa ser toró // It doesn’t need to be a downpour

Basta que chova, mais ou menos meia hora // It’s enough for it to rain just about half an hour
É batata, não demora, enche tudo por aí // And it’s a sure thing, without delay, everything floods
Toda a cidade é uma enorme cachoeira// The whole city’s an enormous waterfall
E da praça da Bandeira // And from Praça da Bandeira
Vou de lancha a Catumbi // I take a rowboat to Catumbi

Que maravilha, nossa linda Guanabara// What a wonder, our beautiful Guanabara
Tudo enguiça, tudo para // Everything stalls, everything stops
Todo o trânsito engarrafa // All the traffic jams

Quem tiver pressa, seja velho ou seja moço// Anyone in a hurry, whether old man or boy
Entre na água até o pescoço // Get in the water up to your neck
E peça a Deus pra ser girafa// And ask God to be a giraffe

Por isso agora já comprei minha canoa// That’s why now I’ve bought my canoe
Pra remar nessa lagoa, cada a vez que a chuva cai// To row across this pond, every time the rain falls
E se uma boa me pedir uma carona// And if a doll asks me for a ride
Com prazer eu levo a dona// With pleasure I’ll take the girl
Na canoa do papai// In papi’s canoe

Isso é igual a coração de mãe // This is just like a mother’s heart
Só o carro da Selma pode atravessar // Only Selma’s car can cross
Chuá, chuá, essa lagoa // Chuá, Chuá [onomatopoeia], this pond

— Commentary —

The expansion of Rio de Janeiro in the 19th-20th centuries depended on draining wetlands, filling marshlands and Guanabara Bay, and channeling and burying rivers — including the Rio Carioca, which gave Rio natives their name. Large portions of those buried sites — including the area where Praça da Bandeira, mentioned in the song, is located — lie below sea level.

This haphazard approach to urban planning has meant that for centuries the city has experienced dramatic floods, captured by some of the city’s greatest documentarians, including Augusto Malta, who was official photographer for the mayor’s office from 1903 to 1936; J. Carlos, a prolific cartoonist who lampooned local policymakers’ solutions in the early to mid twentieth century; and renowned author Lima Barreto, who wrote in a 1915 crônica about floods in 1915, “Mayor Passos, who was so interested in the beautification of this city, totally neglected solving this problem of our Rio.” Barreto was taking aim at the early-twentieth-century urban reforms of Mayor Pereira Passos, whose attempt to remake Rio into the “Paris of the Tropics” involved the demolition of thousands of tenement homes and resulted in a more fully segregated city.

As these lyrics make clear, popular composers also found inspiration in the tragi-comedy of the persistent floods that afflicted the city. And sambista Moreira da Silva (1902-2000), in the great tradition of samba, was always able to generate laughter from even the city’s saddest sides.