“Pela internet 2” by Gilberto Gil (2018)
Source: Ministério da Cultura do Brasil, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
In honor of Gilberto Gil’s birthday, a translation of his follow-on to “Pela Internet” which is itself a follow-on to another samba. This third-generation homage to communication is from Gil’s 2018 album “OK OK OK.” The line “WhatsApp, what’s down, what’s new” below is in English in the original. Brazilians pronounce “WhatsApp” as if it were “What’s up” (which it seems they think it is).
“On the internet 2”
I created my website
I launched my homepage
With five gigabytes
That was already enough to make a boat that sails
My new website
My new fan page
Is now a terabyte
Which never ends no matter how much you want it to
Because the desire now is to mine
In the lands of virtual naked mountains
For crypto-currencies, bitcoins, and so on
Not to build economies, new capitals
If music is the desire to be considered
Just click because the digital store already has it
Anitta, Arnaldo Antunes, I don’t know who else
My love, iTunes has
From a to z, whoever you can imagine
I’m caught in the net
Just like a fished fish
It’s zapzap, it’s liking
It’s instagram, it’s everyone really irritated
Thought is a cloud
Movement is a drone
The monk in the convent
Awaits the advent of God by iPhone
Every day a new invention
There’s so many apps that I don’t know anymore
WhatsApp, what’s down, what’s new
A thousand suggestive dishes on a new menu
It’s facebook, it’s facetime, it’s Google Maps
A different zig-zag, an alley, a ZIP code
That’s not included in the old mail list
Of any place
Waze is an ugly name, but it’s the best way
For you to get there