“Rio de Janeiro” (Elza Soares, 1997)
A translation of a sultry, sensual song from the great Elza Soares on the 458th birthday of the sultry, sensual city of Rio de Janeiro.
“Rio de Janeiro”
Rio de Janeiro
Your perfume, your spice
You’re the blue of the sea
Your coral gaze
The living saltwater along the beach*
On your body of light
That power that God gave you
When Rio has regrets
A wave breaks
Sensual
And brings up
A mermaid
Freed from the web of nets to enchant
And rides in on a seahorse to rule the waters
The shining verse on the breeze of the altar
Yoruba of Iemanjá
Iemanjá on the sea
Rio de Janeiro, the sailing poet came to tell you
That cariocas see
The whole Atlantic forest in a coconut frond
Solar
These are the people who dance in the streets
And the tourists who come to the runway
From somewhere and want to become
Brown
And cousin of Ogum, godchild of an orixá
Plays the numbers in the light shadow of a flame tree
On blue afternoons they pray in Maracanã
The soccer prayer
And the goal is the sun
The sun
*In Portuguese, “jellyfish” is “água viva” which is, literally, “living water.” So this line could, perhaps, also be translated as “salty jellyfish along the beach.” But I’ve chosen to make the ocean what’s alive here.