Happy Birthday, Chico Buarque! (3)
7 songs by Chico Buarque in honor of his 77th birthday on June 19
Cálice
“Cálice” (“Chalice”) was written in 1973 with Gilberto Gil, but was only released on the “Chico Buarque” album in 1978, with Milton Nascimento singing the Gil parts.
To fully appreciate why this song is one of the greatest anti-censorship protest songs of all time is to know that,
when spoken in Portuguese, the word “cálice” (“chalice”) sounds just like “cale-se” (“shut up”).
Listen to Cálice as released by Maria Bethânia the same year on her album “Álibi” (“Alibi”)
Listen to the original sung by Chico and Milton
“Chalice”
Father, take this chalice from me
Father, take this chalice from me
Father, take this chalice from me
Full of wine red from blood
How can I drink from this bitter beverage
Gulp the pain, swallow the toil
Even with my mouth shut, my chest remains
Silence in the city isn’t heard
What good is it for me to be a child of the saint
Better would be to be son of the other one
Another less deadly reality
So much lying, so much brute force
How hard it is to wake up quietly
If in the quiet of the night I am damned
I want to let out an inhuman scream
Which is a way of being heard
All this silence rattles me
Stunned I remain attentive
In the bleachers so that at any time
I can see the monster emerge from the lagoon
Because it is so fat the pig can no longer walk (“Shut up”/“Chalice”)
From so much use the knife no longer cuts
How hard it is, father, to open the door (“Shut up”/“Chalice”)
That word stuck in my throat
This Homeric drunkard in the world
What good is it to have good will
Even with the chest silenced, the noggin remains
Of the drunks in the center of the city
Maybe the world isn’t small (“Shut up”/“Chalice”)
Nor is life a done deal (“Shut up”/“Chalice”)
I want to invent my own sin (“Shut up”/“Chalice”)
I want to die from my own venom (“Shut up”/“Chalice”)
I want to finally lose your head (“Shut up”/“Chalice”)
My head losing your sense (“Shut up”/“Chalice”)
I want to smell the smoke of diesel oil (“Shut up”/“Chalice”)
Get myself drunk until someone forgets me (“Shut up”/“Chalice”)