“Só tinha de ser com você” (Tom Jobim, 1974)
In honor of what would have been Tom Jobim’s 96th birthday, a translation of his bossa nova “Só tinha de ser com você,” sung on the 1974 album “Elis & Tom” by the great Elis Regina.
“It just had to be with you”
Right, only I know
How much love I saved
Without knowing
That it was just for you
Right, it just had to be with you
It had to be for you
Otherwise it was just more pain
Otherwise, it wouldn’t be love
The one we don’t see
Love that came to give
What nobody gave you
Love that came to give
What nobody gave…
Right, you who are made of blue
Let me live in that blue
Let me find my peace
You who are too pretty
If you could at least know
That I have always been only yours
Your were always only mine
This song reminds some people of an American standard written 50 years earlier: “It had to be you” (Isham Jones and Gus Kahn), perhaps most famously sung by Frank Sinatra. The parallels are indeed interesting and there’s one I feel compelled as a translator to comment on: the use of “blue.” The American song alludes to the sadness of the blues, but in Brazil, “blue” connotes peacefulness and tranquility. So “let me live in that blue” is a good thing.