“Alucinação” (Belchior, 1976)
Source: Fabio Dutra, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
On what would have been Belchior’s 78th birthday, a translation of his lyrically dense song with a simple message, “Alucinação,” the title track from his 1976 album. The title translates as “hallucination” obviously, but also with (I believe) more overtones of “fantasy” and “delusion” than that English word. But Belchior is definitely using it here to draw attention to a distinction between the imagined and the real in a clear critique of consumerism and the false promises of modern life and even mass culture, culminating in a call to action for social change. How appropriate as Brazil is about to head into elections tomorrow, with the US just a little over a week behind.
“Alucinação”
Eu não estou interessado em nenhuma teoria
Em nenhuma fantasia, nem no algo mais
Nem em tinta pro meu rosto, ou oba-oba, ou melodia
Para acompanhar bocejos, sonhos matinais
Eu não estou interessado em nenhuma teoria
Nem nessas coisas do oriente, romances astrais
A minha alucinação é suportar o dia a dia
E meu delírio é a experiência com coisas reais
Um preto, um pobre, um estudante, uma mulher sozinha
Blue jeans e motocicletas, pessoas cinzas normais
Garotas dentro da noite, revólver, cheira cachorro
Os humilhados do parque com os seus jornais
Carneiros, mesa, trabalho
Meu corpo que cai do oitavo andar
E a solidão das pessoas dessas capitais
A violência da noite, o movimento do tráfego
Um rapaz delicado e alegre
Que canta e requebra, é demais
Cravos, espinhas no rosto, rock, hot dog
Play it cool, baby
12 jovens coloridos, dois policiais
Cumprindo o seu maldito dever
E defendendo o seu amor e nossa vida
Cumprindo o seu maldito dever
E defendendo o seu amor e nossa vida
Mas eu não estou interessado em nenhuma teoria
Em nenhuma fantasia, nem no algo mais
Longe o profeta do terror que a laranja mecânica anuncia
Amar e mudar as coisas me interessa mais
Amar e mudar as coisas
Amar e mudar as coisas me interessa mais
“Hallucination”
I’m not interested in any theories
In any fantasies or in something more
Not in paint for my face or festive cheers or melody
To go with yawns, day dreams
I’m not interested in any theories
Nor in those things from the east, starstruck romances
My hallucination is supporting the day to day
And my delirium is experiencing real things
A Black man, a poor man, a student, a woman alone
Blue jeans and motorcycles, normal gray people
Girls in the night, revolver, dog smell
The humiliated in the park with their newspapers
Sheep, table, work
My body that falls from the eighth floor
And the solitude of the people in these cities
The violence of the night, the movement of traffic
A delicate and happy boy
Who sings and dances, it’s too much
Blackheads, pimples on your face, rock, hot dog
Play it cool, baby
12 colorful youth, two police officers
Doing their damned duty
And defending their love and our life
Doing their damned duty
And defending their love and our life
But I’m not interested in any theories
In any fantasies, nor in something more
Far from the prophet of terror announced by the clockwork orange
Loving and changing things interests me more
Loving and changing things
Loving and changing things interests me more
In the 11th line, “revolver” may be a reference to the Beatles album that came out in 1966 and includes “Eleanor Rigby” (‘ah, look at all the lonely people…’)
The humiliated in the park in line 12 are probably homeless (children).
Many people think the boy in line 17 is Ney Matogrosso.
”Play it Cool” was a 1962 musical that may also explain the reference to colorful people in the next line, but of course “play it cool” is also a West Side Story reference.