“Passa Mal” (Marília Mendonça, 2018)
Source: Multishow, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Marília Mendonça, (another queen of sofrência), would have turned 30 today. In honor of that landmark, I’ve translated “Passa mal” from her 2018 album “Todos os cantos” (“All the songs” but also “All the corners”). The trickiest part of translating this song may have been the title (which is in the song as well). “Passa bem” means “be well” - “Passa mal” (which is decidedly not a common expression) would be the opposite. It’s not as strong as “F*** off”’; it’s literally telling someone to be “unwell.” (English “bad” and “badly” just don’t work in this context.) But “unwell” doesn’t really have the zing (snark, sass) necessary for a diss track like this. So I flipped a different English expression in hopes of catching the mood.
“Passa mal”
Vem Recife!
Quando me deixou, eu nem sonhava em terminar
Da turma do cinema, eu passei pra turma do bar
Daqueles que bebem só pra lembrar e depois chorar, chorar!
O tempo passou, passou!
Tudo mudou, mudou!
Da sua boca eu já nem lembro do sabor
Mundo girou, girou!
Girou, rodou, rodou!
Desaprendi a te chamar de meu amor...
Na minha vida o seu coração serviu de degrau
Te ver sofrendo não é bom, é sensacional!
Agora passa mal!
Agora passa mal!
Agora passa maaaaal!
“I Wish You the Worst”
C’mon Recife!
When you left me, I wasn’t even dreaming about ending it
From the movie gang, I switched to the bar gang
Those who drink just to remember and then cry, cry!
Time passed, passed!
Everything changed, changed!
I don’t even remember the taste of your mouth anymore
World spun, spun!
Spun, twisted, twisted!
I unlearned to call you my love...
In my life your heart served as a step
Seeing you suffering isn’t good, it’s sensational!
Now I wish you the worst!
Now I wish you the worst!
Now I wish you the wooooorst!