Happy Birthday, Carmen Miranda!
Source: Fox Studios, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Born Maria do Carmo Miranda da Cunha on February 9, 1909, in Marco de Canaveses, Portugal, actress, fashion icon, and singer Carmen Miranda was perhaps best known for this tongue-twister of a song written by Zequinha de Abreu.
The tico-tico is the Portuguese name for the rufous-collared sparrow or Andean sparrow. And fubá is fine cornmeal, much used in Brazilian cooking. Given the choice between the sounds of the English names of these things versus the Portuguese names, I have opted not to change them in the translation because seriously. I did change a few other words (but not as many as you might think!) so that my English translation (kind of) still fits the original rhythm of the song. So sing along!
“Tico-tico in the fubá”
The tico-tico is
Here he is again
The tico-tico has been eating my fubá
If the tico-tico has, it has to feed itself
Then it should go and eat the worms out in the grove
Oh please I gotta get this beast away from my farm
Because he’s gonna end up eating all the darn corn
Get this bird out of here, away from my fubá
There are so many more things he could peck
I’ve done everything to see if I could manage
I put out bird seed to see if he would eat it
I tried a cat, I got a scarecrow, built a trapdoor
But he still thinks my fubá is good nutrition
The tico-tico is
Here is again
The tico-tico has been eating my fubá
The tico-tico has, he has to feed himself
So let him go eat more worms and not fubá