“Você e eu” (Carlos Lyra, 1961)
In honor of what would have been Carlos Lyra’s 92nd birthday, a short and simple translation of his classic short and simple bossa nova. Despite (or maybe because of) its brevity and simplicity, this song, cowritten with Vinicius de Moraes, has been covered by seemingly everyone who has ever recorded anything approaching bossa nova. There is one slightly tricky linguistic aspect to this simple song: All the instances of “podem” in the source below that I have translated as “they can” could also be translated as “you (plural) can” because Portuguese (like many languages with nuanced conjugations) allows the subject to be omitted. In fact, my gut instinct would be to translate “podem” as “you can” but since we can’t tell the difference in English between singular “you” and plural “you,” this would cause confusion with the “you” of the title and the last line, basically ruining the song.
“Você e eu”
Podem me chamar e me pedir, e me rogar
E podem mesmo falar mal
Ficar de mal que não faz mal
Podem preparar milhões de festas ao luar
Eu não vou ir, melhor nem pedir
Eu não vou ir, não quero ir
E também podem me intrigar, e até sorrir e até chorar
E podem mesmo imaginar o que melhor lhes parecer
Podem espalhar que eu estou cansado de viver
E que é uma pena para quem me conheceu
Eu sou mais você e eu
“You and me”
They can call me and ask me and beg me
And they can even speak badly
Be angry that’s not a problem
They can plan millions of moonlight parties
I’m not gonna go, better to not even ask
I’m not gonna go, I don’t wanna go
And they can also try to intrigue me, and even smile and even cry
And they can even imagine what seems best to them
They can spread the word that I’m tired of living
And that it’s too bad for those who knew me
I am more you and me