Happy Birthday, Elza Soares!
This is a translation of one of the most iconic songs from one of the all time great singers and performers, Elza Soares (June 23, 1930 - January 20, 2022). Coincidentally, like Sunday’s post, this is a version of a song by Chico Buarque. As the “Diário do Nordeste” said: “The song … marries perfectly with the singer’s trajectory of suffering and her interpretation has become canonical in the emotional memory of [Brazil]. The love of that mother that shines in the eyes of their offspring, regardless of mistakes or successes, her voice carries the immeasurable pain of someone who said goodbye to four children during her life.”
Listen to the original (from the 1997 album “Trajetória”/“Trajectory”)
Listen to a remake recorded 2 days before her death
“Meu guri”/“My boy”
When this young man was born
It wasn’t time for my sprout to break out
He was already born with a hungry face
I didn’t even have a name to give him
How I got by I can’t explain
I got by with him carrying me on
And in his youth
One day he told me he would get there
Just look, just look
Just look at my boy there
Just look, just look
That’s my boy and he’ll get there
He comes in sweating, quick through the door
And he always brings a present to embarrass me
So many gold chains, young man
Grant me enough neck to hold them
He brought me a purse with everything inside
Keys, notebooks, rosary, and amulet
A handkerchief, a set of documents
So I can finally identify myself, just look
He arrives on the block with deliveries
Bracelet, cement, watch, tire, recorder
I pray until he gets all the way there
This wave of assaults is horrendous
I console him, he consoles me
I put him on my lap for him to sing a lullaby
Suddenly I wake up, look around
And the damned kid has gone to work, just look
He comes in tattooed, portrait of sales
Subtitles in his eyes and his initials
I don’t understand those people, young man
Making too much noise
A boy in the woods, I think he’s laughing
I think he’s beautiful, chin in the air
From the start I told him, young man
He said he’d get there
Just look, just look
Just look at my boy there
Just look, just look
That’s my boy and he’ll get there