“Clube da esquina no. 2” (Lô Borges, 1972/1979)
Source: TV Brasil, CC BY 3.0 BR <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/br/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons
Brazilian musical icon Lô Borges passed away earlier this week on November 2 at the age of 73. Below is a translation of his song “Clube da Esquina no. 2” from what many call the most important album in Brazilian music, “Clube da Esquina,” which Borges co-created with the also iconic Milton Nascimento. (Thanks to the Brazuca Sounds podcast, which used this song in their tribute to the great artist that dropped earlier today.) That first version was an instrumental (perhaps the most well-known instrumental in Brazilian pop music), but Lô Borges recorded a version with lyrics by Márcio Borges (his brother and lyricist for the “Corner Club”) for his 1979 album “Via Láctea” (“Milky Way”) (also recorded earlier by Nana Caymmi who was the one who insisted the song needed lyrics). These new lyrics are full of powerful metaphors against the military regime but also reads as a story of Lô Borges’s life. (Listen to the podcast to find out why!)
Linguistically: The repeat of the last two syllables of the word “passo” at the end of the first stanza creates a new word in Portuguese (“steel”) which I’ve simply left out of the translation. (The repeated syllables at the end of other stanzas are just the 2-syllable words themselves repeated: “calm” and “river” and “people.”) The third full stanza (starting with “and it’s enough”) uses the same Portuguese verb (“contar”) in the first two lines with different meanings requiring different verbs in English. What I have translated as “keep the rhythm” is more literally translated as “count rhythm” and then of course “count on yourself” also uses “to count.”
“Clube da esquina no. 2”
Porque se chamava moço
Também se chamava estrada
Viagem de ventania
Nem lembra se olhou pra trás
Ao primeiro passo
Porque se chamavam homens
Também se chamavam sonhos
E sonhos não envelhecem
Em meio a tantos gases lacrimogênios
Ficam calmos
E lá se vai
Mais um dia
E basta contar compasso
E basta contar consigo
Que a chama não tem pavio
De tudo se faz canção
E o coração na curva de um rio
De tudo se faz canção
E o coração na curva de um rio
E lá se vai
Mais um dia
E o rio de asfalto e gente
Entorna pelas ladeiras
Entope o meio-fio
Esquina mais de um milhão
Quero ver então a gente
E lá se vai
“Corner Club No. 2”
Because he was called a boy
He was also called a road
A trip on a windstorm
He doesn’t even remember if he looked back
On the first step
Because they were called men
They were also called dreams
And dreams don’t grow old
Amid so much tear gas
They remain calm
And there it goes
One more day
And it’s enough to keep the rhythm
And it’s enough to count on yourself
Because the flame has no wick
We make everything into a song
And our heart on the bend of a river
We make everything into a song
And the heart on the bend of a river
And there it goes
One more day
And the river of asphalt and people
Winds around the hillsides
Clogs the curb
A corner more than a million
I want to see the people then
And there it goes