“Caju” (Liniker, 2024)
Source: Circuito Fora do Eixo, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
In honor of the Dia Nacional da Visibilidade Trans (National Day of Trans Visibility) today in Brazil, I’ve translated a song by Liniker, who last year became the Grammy-winningest trans person in the world (4 total: 3 in 2025 and 1 in 2022—when they were the first trans person ever to win a Grammy). Brazil has been commemorating the National Day of Trans Visibility since 2004.
The name of this song comes from a plant that most Americans know only as a nut. (Interestingly, the word “cashew” comes to English through Portuguese, originally from Tupi “acajú” meaning “fruit that produces itself.”) But there is also another part of the cashew plant that is more common in Brazil and elsewhere, frequently seen in juices. It’s tempting to call that other part a fruit, but the actual fruit of the cashew is the part we call a nut, while what looks like a “fruit” is actually a “pseudocarp” or “accessory fruit” (or sometimes “false fruit”). The powerful metaphor of what is or is not what we might assume it to be could not be more apt for today’s celebration of trans visibility.
“Caju”
Quero saber se você vai correr atrás de mim num aeroporto
Pedindo pr'eu ficar, pr'eu não voar
Pr'eu maneirar um pouco
Que vai pintar uma tela do meu corpo nu
Você já decorou quantas tatuagens tenho?
Se eu ligo pra cartoon ou rabisco os meus desenhos
Quantos shows tem na minha agenda? Meu disco favorito?
O peso do meu coração?
Onde serão as férias? Qual o tamanho da demanda?
No samba, sei que samba e o que será que faz chorar?
Será que você sabe que no fundo eu tenho medo
De correr sozinha e nunca alcançar?
Eu me encho de esperança de algo novo que aconteça
Quem despetala a rosa estará lá pro que aconteça?
Nuns dias sou carente, completa, suficiente
Quero o amor correspondente pra testemunhar
Quando eu alçar o voo mais bonito da minha vida
Quem me chamará de amor, de gostosa, de querida?
Que vai me esperar em casa? Polir a joia rara?
Ser o pseudofruto, a pele do caju?
“Cashew”
I want to know if you’ll run after me in an airport
Asking me to stay, for me not to fly
For me to slow down a little
That you’re going to paint a canvas of my naked body
Have you memorized how many tattoos I have?
If I care about cartoons or doodle my drawings
How many shows are on my schedule? My favorite record?
The weight of my heart?
Where will vacation be? How much demand is there?
In samba, I know what samba and what might make you cry?
Might you know that deep down I’m afraid
Of running alone and never reaching?
I fill myself with hope of something new happening
Will the one plucking petals from the rose be there for what happens?
Some days I’m needy, complete, sufficient
I want a requited love to witness
When I take off on the most beautiful flight of my life
Who will call me love, sexy, sweetheart?
Will wait for me at home? Polish the rare jewel?
Be the accessory fruit, the skin of the cashew?