“Águas de Março”
Over 40 years ago, the world lost one of the greatest singers of all time. One of her most famous (and my favorite) songs was written by Tom Jobim who provided both English and Portuguese lyrics. Below I compare Jobim’s English version to what a more “direct” translation would be. Sometimes Jobim picked different words and ideas in the English versus the Portuguese as an apparent workaround of concepts specific to Brazil. Other times he appears to have gone a different route because of the different ways words for the same things sound in the two languages. (However, a couple of times, the English scansion still ends up strained as in “a lonesome road” whose 4 syllables can’t quite stretch over the 6 beats of “é um pouco sozinho.”) Some things to note:
Italicized text below is where Jobim translated his own words pretty much directly.
March is the beginning of Fall in Brazil, not the beginning of Spring as here.
Many more of the items in the Portuguese version start with “é” (“it’s”) than in the English version. Jobim wisely didn’t keep repeating that in English, since “it’s” doesn’t have the same sonority as “é.”
Listen to the Portuguese version (Elis and Tom).
Listen to the English version (just Tom).
Listen to João Gilberto and Astrud Gilberto mix both versions.
Comparison of Jobim’s versions
A stick, a stone, it's the end of the road
It's the rest of a stump, it's a little alone
It's a sliver of glass, it is life, it's the sun
It is night, it is death, it's a trap, it's a gun
[The last part of that verse in Portuguese is: “é um laço, é o anzol” which literally means “it’s a ribbon, it’s the fishhook” - obviously “fishhook” doesn’t rhyme with “sun”…]
The oak when it blooms, a fox in the brush
The knot of the wood, the song of a thrush
The wood of the wind, a cliff, a fall
A scratch, a lump, it is nothing at all
[Jobim chose “oak” for “peroba no campo” (peroba is a family of trees) which is as good as anything really since it’s hard to translate plants. He likely added “when it blooms” to make up for the fact that “oak” is just one syllable. The Portuguese version has "é o nó na madeira”/“it’s the knot in the wood” at the end of the first line of this stanza verse. Then the second line starts with “caingá candeia” which are two more types of trees, which you can see here and here. Taking out all these specific tree references created the space for "a fox in the brush” - which also needed to rhyme with “thrush,” which replaces “matita-pereira” - which opens up a whole world of Brazilian folklore that could never really be captured in the English verses. And the last line in English replaces “É o mistério profundo, é o queira ou não queira”/”It’s the profound mystery, it’s wanting and not wanting.”]
It's the wind blowing free, it's the end of the slope
It's a beam, it's a void, it's a hunch, it's a hope
And the river bank talks of the waters of March
It's the end of the strain, it's the joy in your heart
[“It’s a hunch, it’s a hope” replaces “festa da cumeeira” which is a party at the end of building (“cumeeira” is the ridge along the top of a roof), so in English perhaps something like a barn-raising party. The title of the song comes in earlier in English than in Portuguese, where these last two lines are “É a chuva chovendo, é conversa ribeira | Das águas de março, é o fim da canseira”/“It’s the rain raining, it’s a riverbank conversation | About the waters of March, it’s the end of the tiredness” - some rearranging, some poetic license, and the replacement of the rain with the joy probably for rhyming reasons.]
The foot, the ground, the flesh and the bone
The beat of the road, a slingshot's stone
A fish, a flash, a silvery glow
A fight, a bet, the range of a bow
The bed of the well, the end of the line
The dismay in the face, it's a loss, it's a find
[The Portuguese has “é a marcha estradeira”/“It’s marching on the road” at the end of the first line, more interesting poetic license for “the beat of the road” but then the second line of the original starts with “passarinho na mão”/“a bird in the hand” which probably would have worked somewhere. And that bird returns later in this verse: “É uma ave no céu, é uma ave no chão”/“It’s a bird in the sky, it’s a bird on the ground” replaced in English with the fish, the flash, and the silvery glow. The next to last line is also a total rethinking of “É um regato, é uma fonte, é um pedaço de pão”/“It’s a stream, it’s a spring, it’s a piece of bread” into the fist, the bet, and the bow. This longer, 6-line verse ends in Portuguese with “é um pouco sozinho”/“It’s a little alone” which doesn’t seem to have quite the same uplift as a loss followed by a find.]
A spear, a spike, a point, a nail
A drip, a drop, the end of the tale
A truckload of bricks in the soft morning light
The shot of a gun in the dead of the night
[This verse is much more “list-y” in Portuguese, with “conta/conto”/“bill/tale” instead of “point/nail” and “tale/period” instead of “end of the tale” and the biggest change being the last two lines, which in Portuguese are: “É um peixe, é um gesto, é uma prata brilhando | É a luz da manha, é o tijolo chegando”/ “It’s a fish, it’s a gesture, it’s silver glistening | It’s the morning light, it’s the bricks arriving”]
A mile, a must, a thrust, a bump,
It's a girl, it's a rhyme, it's a cold, it's the mumps
The plan of the house, the body in bed
And the car that got stuck, it's the mud, it's the mud
[The first two verses of this one are quite different: “É a lenha, é o dia, é o fim da picada | É a garrafa de cana, o estilhaço na estrada”/“It’s firewood, it’s the day, it’s the last straw | It’s the bottle of moonshine, the shrapnel on the road.”]
A float, a drift, a flight, a wing
A hawk, a quail, the promise of spring
And the river bank talks of the waters of March
It's the promise of life, it's the joy in your heart
[Again the list at the beginning of this verse is quite different: “É um passo, é uma ponte, é um sapo, é uma rã | É um resto de mato na luz da manhã”/“It’s a step, it’s a bridge, it’s a toad, it’s a frog | It’s a slice of the woods in the morning light.” And the Portuguese is a little different this time around with waters of March, which “close out the summer.” Given that March is the beginning of summer in the North, this makes sense.]
A snake, a stick, it is John, it is Joe
It's a thorn in your hand and a cut in your toe
A point, a grain, a bee, a bite
A blink, a buzzard, a sudden stroke of night
[The English list at the end isn’t in the Portuguese, which ends with the waters of March again, closing out summer, and the promise of life in your heart.]
A pin, a needle, a sting of pain
A snail, a riddle, a wasp, a stain
A pass in the mountains, a horse and a mule
In the distance the shelves rode three shadows of blue
And the river bank talks of the waters of March
It's the promise of life in your heart, in your heart
[Interestingly, this is a completely new verse in English, without a matching verse in Portuguese.]
A stick, a stone, the end of the road
The rest of a stump, a lonesome road
A sliver of glass, a life, the sun
A knife, a death, the end of the run
And the river bank talks of the waters of March
It's the end of all strain, it's the joy in your heart
[Here the Portuguese version reuses earlier words and lines, while the English version comes up with new concepts. Finally, the Portuguese version ends with just the ends of many of the lyrics - “au,” “edra” instead of “pau,” “pedra” for example.]