“Tempo Rei” (Gilberto Gil, 1984)
Source: Ministério da Cultura do Brasil, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Yesterday the great Gilberto Gil turned 83 years old. King time indeed. Gil buries so many little gems in his lyrics that there’s simply no way to capture them all in a straight translation. For example: in “Transcorrendo Transformando” (literally “Elapsing Transforming”) I had to choose between keeping that parallelism of the words themselves or the precise meanings. I chose the former but I’m really not completely satisfied with “Transpiring.”
Or this: Brazilians have an idiom that expresses the idea of “slow and steady wins the race”: “água mole em pedra dura tanto bate até que fura.” It rhymes and literally means “soft water on hard stone hits so much that it makes a hole” or in better English, “constant dripping wears away the stone” (yawn). A rhyming equivalent in English is “little strokes fell great oaks” but I’ve never heard anyone say that in real life, as opposed to the Brazilian saying which people use all the time. Then Gil takes it up a notch (knowing that his audience knows the proverb) to “água mole pedra dura tanto bate que não restará nem pensamento” (“soft water hard rock hits so much that nothing not even a thought will be left”).
Or this: The lines after “king time” use the second person plural verb tense, which obviously we don’t have as a separate tense in English. It’s uncommon in Brazil, reserved mainly for extreme formality and church (when addressing God, Jesus, etc.). So when Gil uses it here to talk about “King Time” it resonates with Portuguese speakers in a way that it just doesn’t in English. This has led me to use the word “succor” for the first time in my life.
And finally (although I could go on), Gil brilliantly and subtly uses the phrase “Não me iludo” as the opening line and near the end in two different ways. Thus, two different translations.
“Tempo Rei”
Não me iludo
Tudo permanecerá do jeito que tem sido
Transcorrendo
Transformando
Tempo e espaço navegando todos os sentidos
Pães de Açúcar
Corcovados
Fustigados pela chuva
Pelo eterno vento
Água mole
Pedra dura
Tanto bate que não restará nem pensamento
Tempo rei, ó, tempo rei, ó, tempo rei
Transformai as velhas formas do viver
Ensinai-me, ó, Pai, o que eu ainda não sei
Mãe Senhora do Perpétuo, socorrei
Pensamento
Mesmo o fundamento singular do ser humano
De um momento para o outro
Poderá não mais fundar nem gregos, nem baianos
Mães zelosas
Pais corujas
Vejam como as águas de repente ficam sujas
Não se iludam
Não me iludo
Tudo agora mesmo pode estar por um segundo
Tempo rei, ó, tempo rei, ó, tempo rei
Transformai as velhas formas do viver
Ensinai-me, ó, Pai, o que eu ainda não sei
Mãe Senhora do Perpétuo, socorrei
“King Time”
I have no illusions
Everything will remain the way that it has been
Transpiring
Transforming
Time and space navigating all the senses
Sugarloafs
Corcovados
Swept by the rain
By the eternal wind
Soft water
Hard rock
Drips so much that even thoughts don’t last
King time, oh, king time, oh, king time
Transform the old ways of living
Teach me, oh, Father, what I don’t yet know
Mother Our Perpetual Lady, succor us
Thought
Even the singular foundation of the human being
From one moment to the next
May no longer found either Greeks or Bahians
Zealous mothers
Doting fathers
Look how the waters are suddenly dirty
Don’t be deceived
I’m not deceived
Everything right now could be just for a second
King time, oh, king time, oh, king time
Transform the old ways of living
Teach me, oh, Father, what I don’t yet know
Mother Our Perpetual Lady, succor us