“As curvas da estrada de Santos” (Roberto Carlos/Erasmo Carlos, 1969)
Today’s translation is a double celebration: Roberto Carlos’s 84th birthday and more from the wonderful “Ainda Estou Aqui” soundtrack. As Leandro Vignoli has noted on the Brazuca Sounds podcast, when this song came out, Roberto Carlos (“O Rei”/“The King”) was vastly outselling people like Caetano Veloso. The torch had not yet been completely passed from the “Jovem Guarda” to the new generation of MPB, and this song occupies an interesting spot in that transition: In a bonus podcast episode, Leandro recounts how Roberto Carlos, who was often criticized as supporting the dictatorship, sang this chorus-less song for Caetano during the latter’s exile. Caetano talks in his memoir about how Roberto Carlos coming to London and singing this particular song touched him so much that he burst into tears.
Returning to the Oscar-winning movie’s soundtrack, as Leandro also notes in his episode about the soundtrack, this song is about the port city of Santos, which is where Rubens Paiva, the father in “Ainda estou aqui,” was born and where the family moves when they leave Rio. Finally and ironically, the road that Roberto and Erasmo (who aren’t related) wrote about no longer exists; for safety reasons, the dozens if not hundreds of curves in the road were straightened out and now it’s a fairly straight shot down this road from São Paulo to Santos. Enjoy one of the most covered songs in the Brazilian songbook!
Listen to the song
Listen to Caetano sing the song
Bonus: Listen to Elis Regina sing the song
“As curvas da estrada de Santos”
Se você pretende saber quem eu sou
Eu posso lhe dizer
Entre no meu carro na Estrada de Santos
E você vai me conhecer
Você vai pensar que eu
Não gosto nem mesmo de mim
E que, na minha idade
Só a velocidade anda junto a mim
Só ando sozinho e no meu caminho
O tempo é cada vez menor
Preciso de ajuda, por favor, me acuda
Eu vivo muito só
Se acaso numa curva
Eu me lembro do meu mundo
Eu piso mais fundo, corrijo num segundo
Não posso parar
Eu prefiro as curvas da Estrada de Santos
Onde eu tento esquecer
Um amor que eu tive e vi pelo espelho
Na distância se perder
Mas se o amor que eu perdi
Eu novamente encontrar
As curvas se acabam e na Estrada de Santos
Eu não vou mais passar
Não vou mais passar
As curvas se acabam, na Estrada de Santos
Eu não vou mais passar
“The curves on the road to Santos”
If you’d like to know who I am
I can tell you
Get in my car on the road to Santos
And you’ll get to know me
You’re gonna think that I
Don’t even like myself
And that, at my age
Only the speed keeps up with me
I only drive alone and on my way
Time is getting shorter
I need help, please help me
I’m living so alone
If perchance on a curve
I remember my world
I step on the gas more, adjust in a second
I can’t stop
I prefer the curves on the road to Santos
Where I try to forget
A love that I had and I saw in the mirror
Get lost in the distance
But if I once again find
The love that I lost
The curves end and on the road to Santos
I’ll never go again
I’ll never go again
The curves end, on the road to Santos
I’ll never go again