“Desafinado” (João Gilberto, 1959)
In honor of João Gilberto’s birthday (he would have been 94 today!), a translation of a Tom Jobim song that Gilberto made famous. What more can be said about this true classic that hasn’t already been said before? Well maybe some geeky linguistic stuff: The first 5 lines of this song contain 5 different verb tenses (future subjunctive, present indicative (three times), imperative, present perfect, and preterite). Fun! Also, I decided to keep the original’s use of “out of tune” as a noun to refer to those who are out of tune (perfectly natural in Portuguese, a little less so in English). And finally, there’s a pun in the Portuguese in the line about taking a picture: the verb “revelar” means “reveal” but also “develop” (as in a photograph) so the line “Revelou-se a sua enorme ingratidão” means both “Your enormous ungratefulness was revealed” and “Your enormous ungratefulness is what was developed” - the pun is kinda there in the English but not as directly as in the English.
“Desafinado”
Se você disser que eu desafino amor
Saiba que isso em mim provoca imensa dor
Só privilegiados tem ouvido igual ao seu
Eu possuo apenas o que Deus me deu
E se você insiste em classificar
Meu comportamento de anti-musical
Eu mesmo mentindo devo argumentar
Que isto é bossa-nova
Que isto é muito natural
O que voce não sabe nem sequer pressente
É que os desafinados também tem um coração
Fotografei você na minha Rolleiflex
Revelou-se a sua enorme ingratidão
Só não poderá falar assim do meu amor
Ele é o maior que você pode encontrar, viu
Você com a sua música esqueceu o principal
Que no peito dos desafinados
No fundo do peito bate calado
No peito dos desafinados também bate um coração
“Out of tune”
If you say that I sing out of tune, my love
You should know that that causes me great pain
Only the privileged have an ear like yours
I have only what God gave me
And if you insist on classifying
My behavior as anti-musical
Even if I’m lying I have to argue
That this is bossa nova
That this is totally natural
What you don’t know or even sense
Is that the out-of-tune also have a heart
I took a picture of you with my Rolleiflex*
What it showed was your enormous ungratefulness
You just can’t talk like that about my love
It’s the greatest that you can find, see
You with your music forgot the main thing
That in the heart of the out-of-tunes
Deep in their chest quietly beats
In the chest of the out-of-tunes also beats a heart
*I never would have thought that a camera would become a repeating motif of this blog!