“Tá tudo bem” (Dani-Vie & Martins, 2023)
Perhaps I should have called this series of posts “New to me” instead of “New releases” given the songs that have appeared in it so far. But given that my penchant for translating MPB classics has meant that the selections on The Anvil skew significantly to the 1980s and 1990s, I guess this lovely and loving 2023 song qualifies as new. “Tá tudo bem” was on the 2023 album “Minha cara,” which is very often “My dear” but could be “My face” and given this video I think it’s very likely the latter. That said the song is very inward focused and thus the “dear" could be the singer herself.
The expression “tudo bem” (and myriad related phrases like “tudo bom” and “tudo joia”) does a lot of work in Brazilian Portuguese. Literally (i.e., word for word), it translates as “everything well” but idiomatically it’s a greeting (which I would translate as “how are you?”), a response to a greeting (“all’s well” perhaps), and obviously a general expression of how things are going. The title of this song adds the contracted/shortened version of the verb “to be”—getting to something like “Everything is (going) well.” The frequent colloquial renderings in this song (tá, tô, cê) make the lyrics sound familiar and, while not exactly “slangy,” at least current and friendly. So that’s why I chose “It’s all good” for “Tá tudo bem” here.
“Tá tudo bem”
Tô feliz, me refiz
Tudo conspirando a meu favor
Cê tá bem
Eu também tô
Te falei, encontrei
Hoje entendo o tempo que passou
Sei quem fui
E é essa quem sou
Sorriso é feito pra sorrir
Saudade é pra quem tem
Pra quem espera o sol dizer já
Um dia vem
Não lembro quando entrei no trem
Mas sei quando saltei a mais de cem
Melhor assim
Saí da cama pra sonhar
E ser quem me convém
E se você quiser conversar, tá tudo bem
Já consegui cicatrizar, ressignifiquei
Que bem você me fez
“It’s all good”
I’m happy, I’ve remade myself
Everything conspiring in my favor
You’re good
Me too
I told you, I found it
Today I understand the past
I know who I was
And this is who I am
Smiles are made for smiling
Nostalgia is for those who feel it
For those waiting for the sun to say soon
A day is coming
I don’t remember when I got on the train
But I know when I jumped at over a hundred
Better this way
I got out of bed to dream
And to be who I’ve become
And if you want to talk, it’s all good
I’ve managed to scar, I’ve redefined
How good you were for me