“Na pressão” (Lenine, 1999)
Source: Otávio Nogueira, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
For Lenine’s 67th birthday today, I’ve translated the title track of his amazing 1999 album, one of my favorite songs and a potential anthem for these crazy times. His references are all to Brazil and the precarity and violence of life, but the line about killing in the midwest hits very close to home.
The line “tem mandinga de cabôco” refers to the mix of African and Indigenous (caboclo) in a way that doesn’t culturally shift into English very well, so I’ve chosen to go a different way with that.
“Na pressão”
Olho na pressão, tá fervendo
Olho na panela
Dinamite é o feijão cozinhando
Dentro do molho dela
A bruxa acendeu o fogo
Se cuida, rapaziada
Tem mandinga de cabôco
Mandando nessas parada
Garrafada de serpente
Despacho de cachoeira
Quanto mais o fogo sobe
Mais a panela cheira
Olho na pressão, tá fervendo
Olho na panela
Dinamite é o feijão cozinhando
Dentro do molho dela
A bruxa mexeu o caldo
Se liga aí, ô galera
Tá pingando na mistura
Saliva da besta-fera
Chacina no centro-oeste
E guerrilha na fronteira
Emboscada na avenida
Tiro e queda na ladeira
Mas feitiço é bumerangue
Perseguindo a feiticeira
“Under Pressure”
Eyes on the pressure, it’s boiling
Eyes on the pressure cooker
Dynamite is the beans cooking
In her sauce
The witch lit the fire
Be careful, guys
There are crafty spells
Running this thing
Forkful of serpent
Waterfall rituals
The more the fire rises
The more the skillet smells
Eyes on the pressure, it’s boiling
Eyes on the pressure cooker
Dynamite is the beans cooking
In her sauce
The witch stirred the broth
Pay attention now, hey folks
It’s dripping into the mixture
Bestial beast saliva
Slaughter in the midwest
And guerilla warfare on the border
Ambush on the street
Shot and drop on the hill
But spells are boomerangs
Pursuing the caster