Happy Birthday, Lô Borges!
Lô Borges, co-creator (with Milton Nascimento) of the album Clube da Esquina (Corner Club), which tops many lists of the best Brazilian record of all time, turns 71 today. In honor of that occasion, here’s my translation of the track “O Trem Azul” (“The Blue Train”) from that 1972 double album, which Borges co-wrote with Ronaldo Bastos.
“O trem azul”
Coisas que a gente se esquece de dizer
Frases que o vento vem às vezes me lembrar
Coisas que ficaram muito tempo por dizer
Na canção do vento não se cansam de voar
Você pega o trem azul, o Sol na cabeça
O Sol pega o trem azul, você na cabeça
Um Sol na cabeça
“The Blue Train”
Things that we forget to say
Sentences that the wind sometimes brings me to remember
Things left unsaid for a long time
Never tire of flying on the song of the wind
You take the blue train, the sun on your head
The sun takes the blue train, you on its mind
The Sun in your head
The last words of the last three lines (“on your head” / "on its mind” / “in your head”) are all the same in Portuguese (“na cabeça”). Where English makes us pick between “on your head” (as in shining down on it) and “in your head” (as in on your mind), in Portuguese both possibilities exist at the same time: the sun shining on your head and existing in your mind. Just as I’ve decided to follow Lô Borges’ lead and play around a little with the meaning, something that happens automatically in the Portuguese.