“Era Verão” by Alceu Valença
Source: Prefeitura de Olinda, CC BY 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
On this first day of fall in the US, a song about the end of summer, which peaks in February in Brazil.
“It Was Summer”
It was summer in the city of São Sebastião
In my Rio de Janeiro
February surrendered
Giving itself over entirely
Its blue, its haze, kissing
Cuz it’s the month of desire
Sweaty month, tanned month
With its charm and its spice
With its wobbly capoeira moves
Bellybuttons, legs, tambourines
The tanned of Copacabana
And my foreign gaze
All the city in heat
Oh, my Rio de Janeiro