“Sonho meu” (Dona Ivone Lara, 1978)
Source: As fotos da Virada!, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
This classic song written by Dona Ivone Lara and first recorded by Maria Bethânia and Gal Costa will be the focus of a bonus episode from my friends at Brazuca Sounds. It’s one of my favorite songs, so I was surprised to find I haven’t translated it here yet. Much more than just a simple love song about someone separated from their beloved, this is a powerful anti-dictatorship message as well, wherein the ones far away are political exiles. Perhaps the most famous version of this song is the one by Maria Bethânia and Gal Costa, included on David Byrne’s landmark compilation album, which introduced it to a broad American audience.
From the very start, this seemingly simple song offers up poetic choices for translation: The title could be just “My Dream” but it could also be “Dream of mine” because of the word order. Even though I feel like the latter makes more sense with the content of the song, I’ve gone with the former since I think it makes more sense with the music. It’s also worth noting that the Portuguese word “céu” means both “sky” and “heaven”—I’ve gone with the former here since (again) I think it matches more the sense and tone of the context, but it could just as easily be the latter. Another word that depends on context is “madrugada” which is literally the pre-dawn hours of the morning (my hefty physical Aurélio Portuguese dictionary defines it as the hours just before dawn or the hours from midnight to six in the morning), but could be translated as “dawn” or “wee hours” or “late at night” or “early morning.” (I was somewhat surprised to find that here on the Anvil I apparently have always gone with “dawn.”)
“Sonho meu”
Sonho meu
Sonho meu
Vai buscar quem mora longe
Sonho meu
Vai mostrar esta saudade
Sonho meu
Com a sua liberdade
Sonho meu
No meu céu a estrela-guia
Se perdeu
A madrugada fria só me traz melancolia
Sonho meu
Sinto o canto da noite na boca do vento
Fazer a dança das flores no meu pensamento
Traz a pureza de um samba
Sentido, marcado de mágoas de amor
Um samba que mexe o corpo da gente
E o vento vadio embalando a flor
My dream
Sonho meu
Sonho meu
Vai buscar quem mora longe
Sonho meu
“My Dream”
My dream
My dream
Go find the one who lives far away
My dream
Go show them this saudade
My dream
With your freedom
My dream
In my sky the guiding star
Has been lost
The cold dawn only brings me melancholy
My dream
I feel the song of the night on the edge of the wind
Creating a dance of flowers in my thoughts
It brings the purity of a samba
Meaning, marked by sorrows of love
A samba that stirs our body
And the stray wind cradling the flower
My dream
My dream
My dream
Go find the one who lives far away
My dream