“Falador Passa Mal” (Os Originais do Samba, 1973)
This is another joint release with our friends at Brazuca Sounds, who will be dropping an episode about this song later today. “Falador Passa Mal” is from the 1973 Os Originais do Samba (literally, The Samba Originals) album “É Preciso Cantar” (“You Gotta Sing”). It was written by the great Jorge Ben, the group’s frequent collaborator and a sort of godfather to them. Linguistically, it’s pretty straightforward, but the title (specifically the first word) presents something of a challenge. There’s no such thing as an “untranslatable word” but there are words that don’t have a perfect one-to-one match in another language and this is one of those. “Falador” is a noun that literally means a talkative person, so could be translated as “talker” but who would ever say that? As the context of this song makes clear, a “falador” is someone who not only talks, but talks too much. Personally I think the best one-word translation might be “blabbermouth” but that doesn’t work with this song. There is some context of “gossip” as well but that word focuses on the content of what’s being said more than the person doing the talking. Brazuca Sounds notes that the title of this song is very close to the English “Snitches get stitches” and I wholeheartedly agree, but I still wanted to find a word that really focused on the act of being a talker rather than the specific content of what they’re saying. I’m thrilled to report that I ended up with the same word that Brazuca Sounds uses. The second and third words of the title are also open to multiple translations. Luckily the song repeats the line enough that I had the opportunity to just use a bunch of them!
I can’t pass up the opportunity to mention the names of the current and past members of this group. A lot of them demonstrate the Brazilian penchant for one-word (frequently two-syllable) nicknames (Gibi, Bidi, Lelei, Zinho) and many of them are their own rabbit hole of translation. (Of course we don’t usually translate names, but bear with me.) Current and former members include Mussum (one of the names for the South American lungfish, which has the amazing Latin name “Lepidosiren paradoxa”), Bigode (literally “mustache”), Sócrates (not to be confused with the Greek philosopher or the Brazilian soccer great), and Marcos Scooby. Not to mention Branca di Neve (Snow White), Idi Amin (!), and Betinho Drumms (Bobby Drums?).
“Falador Passa Mal”
Falador passa mal rapaz
Falador passa mal
Falador passa mal rapaz
Falador passa mal rapaz
Falador passa mal
Falador passa mal rapaz
Quem mandou você mentir
Você vai se machucar
Novamente aqui estou
Você vai ter de me aturar
Que malandro é você
Que não sabe o que diz
Cuidado que muita mentira
Você pode perder o nariz
Olha, eu vou te dá um alô
Que é pra você se mancar
Olha, eu vou te dá um alô
Que é pra você se mancar
Se você saiu por aí
E não conseguiu arranjar alguém
Deixe que alguém saia por aí
E consiga arranjar você
Porque
Falador, falador
Falador, falador
Falador passa mal rapaz
Falador passa mal
Falador passa mal rapaz
Falador, falador
Falador, falador
Falador, falador
“Loudmouths Pay the Price”
Loudmouths pay the price son
Loudmouths end up badly
Loudmouths get what’s coming son
Loudmouths get in trouble son
Loudmouths don’t do well
Loudmouths pay the price son
Who told you to lie
You’re gonna hurt yourself
Here I am again
You’re gonna have to put up with me
What a scoundrel you are
Who doesn’t know what he’s saying
Take care cuz too many lies
You can lose your nose
Look, I’m going to give you a shout
Which is for you to check yourself
Look, I’m going to give you a shout
Which is for you to check yourself
If you went out around here
And didn’t manage to find anyone
Let someone else go out around here
And manage to arrange you
Because
Loudmouth, loudmouth
Loudmouth, loudmouth
Loudmouths pay the price son
Loudmouths do poorly
Loudmouths pay the price son
Loudmouth, loudmouth
Loudmouth, loudmouth
Loudmouth, loudmouth