“Quem sabe?!” (Carlos Gomes, 1859)
Source: Gilberto Gomes, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Yes, EIGHTEEN hundred and fifty-nine. I’m pretty that makes this the oldest song translation I’ve posted. The composer, Carlos Gomes, was born on July 11, 1836, in what was then the Brazilian Empire under Dom João II. Most famous for his opera “O Guarani,” Gomes also wrote modinhas, sentimental songs that were very popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. This one, with words by Bittencourt Sampaio, was perhaps his most famous. In 1889, Gomes was given the chance to compose a national anthem for the newly independent Brazil, but he declined due to his loyalty to the monarchy. Whoops.
Had he not died last October, the great classical pianist Arthur Moreira Lima would have been 85 today. Listen below to Gomes’s old-fashioned ditty as performed in 1985 by Arthur Moreira Lima and the also legendary Ney Matogrosso (who will turn 84 on August 1st).
“Quem sabe?!”
Tão longe de mim distante
Onde irá, onde irá o teu pensamento
Tão longe de mim distante
Onde irá, onde irá o teu pensamento
Quisera, saber agora
Quisera, saber agora
Se esqueceste, se esqueceste
Se esqueceste o juramento
Quem sabe se és constante
Se inda é meu teu pensamento
Minh'alma toda devora
Da saudade, da saudade, agro tormento
Vivendo de ti ausente
Ai meu Deus, ai meu Deus que amargo pranto
Suspiros, angústia e dores
São as vozes, são as vozes do meu canto
Quem sabe? Pomba inocente
Se também te corre o pranto
Minh'alma cheia d'amores
Te entreguei já neste canto
“Who knows?!”
So distantly far away from me
Where will it go, where will your thought go
So distantly far away from me
Where will it go, where will your thought go
I wish I knew now
What I wouldn’t give to know now
If you’ve forgotten, if you’ve forgotten
If you’ve forgotten your vow
Who knows if you are constant
If of me your thoughts still are
My whole soul is devoured
From the longing, from the saudade, bitter torment
Living absent from you
Oh my God, oh my God what bitter mourning
Sighs, anguish, and pains
Are the voices, are the voices of my song
Who knows? Innocent dove
If mourning runs in you as well
My soul full of loves
I’ve already given you in this song