“Mistério do Planeta” (Novos Baianos, 1972)
Source: Eu marco, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Through the band Novos Baianos, Luiz Galvão had a tremendous impact on Brazilian music. The Novos Baianos’ landmark 1972 album “Acabou Chorare” (from which this cryptic song “Mistério do Planeta” comes) mixed samba, rock, bossa nova, frevo, choro, and baião. Galvão died on his 87th birthday, one year ago this coming Sunday.
“Mystery of the Planet”
… I’m showing how I am
And I’m being how I can
Throwing my body into the world
Wandering through all the corners
And by the natural law of encounters
I leave and receive so much
And I pass before my eyes
Naked or covered with shades
Past, present
I participate being the mystery of the planet
… The triple mystery of the “stop”
That I pass through and it being
In that which remains in each of us
In what I’m following on my path
And in the air that pretended it saw
Open parentheses, don’t forget
That separate from that
I’m no more than a hustler
A kid from Brazil
Who begs for and gives out handouts
But I wander and always think about more than one
That’s why nobody sees my bag
I would be remiss as a linguist if I didn’t mention that the words “past, present | I participate” in the original (“passado, presente | Participo”) sound very much like a play on words of “passado, presente, particípio” (“past, present, participle”), an interpretation I think supported by Galvão’s sly grin in the video at that point.