“Lua e flor” (Oswaldo Montenegro, 1980)
In honor of Oswaldo Montenegro’s 69th birthday, a translation of one of his most popular songs. It seems a bit cheesy (“brega”) nowadays, but this was an MPB hit in its day. I confess to having changed the third line, which in the source is about an ugly woman looking in a store window. Just doesn’t hold up to modern standards in my mind. Conversely, I have to say that the “airy certainty of poetry” is brilliant.
“Lua e flor”
Eu amava como amava algum cantor
De qualquer clichê, de cabaré, de lua e flor
Eu sonhava como a feia na vitrine
Como carta que se assina em vão
Eu amava como amava um sonhador
Sem saber porquê e amava ter no coração
A certeza ventilada de poesia
De que o dia amanhece, não
Eu amava como amava um pescador
Que se encanta mais com a rede que com o mar
Eu amava como jamais poderia se soubesse
Como te encontrar
“Moon and flower”
I loved like some singer loved
With any old cliché, a cabaret, moon and flower
I dreamed like a child in a store window
Like a letter one signs in vain
I loved like a dreamer loved
Without knowing why and I loved having in my heart
The airy certainty of poetry
That the day dawns, no
I loved like a fisherman loved
Who is more enchanted by the net than by the sea
I loved like I never could have if I had known
How to find you