“Índios” (Legião Urbana, 1986)
Source: Lucaseisinger, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
This past week saw the 25th anniversary of Legião Urbana lead singer Renato Russo’s death (October 11, 1996) on the same day that the United States officially recognized Indigenous Peoples’ Day for the first time.
“Indians”
What I wouldn’t give at least once
To have around me all the gold I gave to those
Who managed to convince me it was proof of friendship
If someone took away even what I didn’t have
What I wouldn’t give at least once
To forget that I believed that it was fun
To cut rags from old cloth
Of fine linen and pure silk
What I wouldn’t give at least once
To explain what nobody can understand
That what happened is still yet to come
And the future isn’t what it used to be
What I wouldn’t give at least once
To prove that those who have more than they need
Almost always convince themselves they don’t have enough
They talk too much because they don’t have anything to say
What I wouldn’t give at least once
For the simplest to be seen
As the most important
But they gave us mirrors and we saw a sick world
What I wouldn’t give at least once
To understand how one sole God at the same time is three
And that same God was killed by you all
Your evil, then, made God so sad
I wanted the danger and I even bled alone, understand
That way I could bring you back to me
When I discovered that it’s always just you
Who understands me from beginning to end
You’re the only one who has the cure for my addiction
Of insisting on this nostalgia that I feel
For everything that I haven’t yet seen
Continued tomorrow…