“Jimmy, Renda-se” (Tom Zé, 1970)
Source: Sérgio Savarese from Sao Paulo City / Ipiranga, Brasil, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
More from the 2025 Best Foreign Film “Ainda estou aqui” soundtrack, but this translation is unlike any I’ve ever done. (I’m not even sure it’s really a “translation” per se!) I’ve noted before how Tom Zé plays with words and sounds. In that vein this song is a hodgepodge of quasi-English and pseudo-Portuguese, with words seemingly chosen more for their sound than anything else. English words are “Portuguese-ified” and vice versa; words hint at an underlying meaning, but don’t really cohere into full (grammatical) sentences; references are buried in mangled syllables within other words.
The translation difficulties in this song start in the title itself, which is a play on “Jimi Hendrix.” (In Portuguese, the “r” in “renda-se” is pronounced like an “h”; Brazilians don’t like to end words with a consonant so they pronounce Jimi’s last name as if it ended with “icksy.”) But at the same time, the words in the title actually mean something - which is what my English title is - that is spot on for the scene in the movie where this song plays.
I’ve taken Tom Zé’s chaos as an invitation to be a little more playful with this translation, focusing less on meanings and more on sounds, sometimes replacing Portuguese orthography with English spelling to get to a similar “vibe.” I’ve gone for what appear to be literal meanings in some places (the line about rock and roll) and changed what appears to be a literal meaning in others (avoiding the different connotations of “looky,” I changed that line to be cheese and cookie nonsense). I’ve lost some things this way (“Bob Dica” is a reference to Bob Dylan; “cai, cigano” is a shout out to Caetano Veloso; “jarrangil” has Gilberto Gil in it; but I did keep the hidden reference to Gal Costa in the line about cigarettes) but I think gained some too (the play on “tacky” and “cheeky” and making Janis Joplin “showy” rather than tied to “tap beer”). Some parts aren’t even translations but renderings into something more comprehensible to English speakers. Finally, I really wanted to keep the reference to “Rolleiflex” since there’s a prominent one in “I’m still here” but since “Halley” and “Rolleiflex” don’t start with the same consonant sound in English like they do in Portuguese, I had to somewhat change the reference to Halley contemporary. [ht to Leandro Vignoli for that suggestion!]
NOTE: This song is also forthcoming on the Brazuca Sounds podcast. In that episode you can hear Leandro’s always-excellent analysis, including reference to a later version of this song with “real” words in it. Maybe someday I’ll add that version to this one, but for now I’ve much more enjoyed playing in this liminal space between languages. (Try reading/singing my lyrics to the original tune - I think it works!)
Listen to the song
(Try reading/singing my lyrics to the original tune - I think it works!)
“Jimmy, Renda-Se”
Guta guta me look, me look love me
(Guta me look, me look love me)
Tac sutaque destaque tac she
(Tac sutaque destaque tac she)
Oh, tique tique butique que tique te gamou
(Tique butique que tique te gamou)
Oh, toque-se rock se rock rock me
(Toque-se rock se rock rock me)
Bob Dica, diga
Jimmy renda-se
Cai cigano, cai, camóni bói
Jarrangil century fox
Galve me a cigarretes
Billy Halley Rolleiflex
Jâni chope chope chope chope
“Jimmy, Surrender”
Gouda gouda me cookie, me cookie lovey me
(Gouda me cookie, me cookie lovey me)
Tacky so tacky the sticky tacky she
(Tacky so tacky the sticky tacky she)
Oh, cheeky cheeky boutique key cheeky chi chi blow
(Cheeky boutique key cheeky chi chi blow)
Oh, rollin’ and rockin’ you rock and roll with me
(Rollin’ and rockin’ you rock and roll with me)
Bobby Hint, say it
Jimmy, surrender
Fall gypsy, fall, c’mon boy
Twentieth century fox
Galve me a cigarette
Ritchie Valens Rolleiflex
Janis showy showy showy showy