"Roda" lyrics (very roughly) translated

TulitaPepsi

Well-Known Member
Music and Lyrics by Giberto Gil & João Augusto

(Its basically a "Wheel of Life")

My people, pay attention
In the wheel that I made you
I want to show who's coming
What the people say
I can talk, because I know
I take the others out for me
When I have lunch, I don’t have dinner
And when I sing it like this

Now I'm going to have fun
Now i will start
I want to see who's going out
I want to see who will stay
You don't have to listen to me
Who doesn't want to listen to me

Who has money in the world
The more you have, you want to win
And we have nothing here
It gets worse than it is
Your boy, be ashamed
End the impudence
Leave the poor man's money
And steal another thief

Now I'm going to have fun
Now I will proceed
I want to see who will stay
I want to see who's going out
You are not obliged to listen
Who doesn't want to hear me

If the rich and the poor die
Bury the rich and I
I want to see who separates
The dust of the rich man or mine
If there is equality down there
Up here there must be
Who wants to be more than he is
One day he will suffer

Now I'm going to have fun
Now I will proceed
I want to see who will stay
I want to see who's going out
You are not obliged to listen
Who doesn't want to hear me

Now I will finish
Now I will talk
Who knows everything and says soon
You have nothing to say
I want to see who's coming back
I want to see who will run away
I want to see who will stay
I want to see who will betray

So I close this wheel
The wheel I made you
The wheel that belongs to the people
Where you say what you say
But where does it say what it says
But where does it say what it says
Where you say what you say ...

###################################################

Meu povo, preste atenção
Na roda que eu te fiz
Quero mostrar a quem vem
Aquilo que o povo diz
Posso falar, pois eu sei
Eu tiro os outros por mim
Quando almoço, não janto
E quando canto é assim

Agora vou divertir
Agora vou começar
Quero ver quem vai sair
Quero ver quem vai ficar
Não é obrigado a me ouvir
Quem não quiser me escutar

Quem tem dinheiro no mundo
Quanto mais tem, quer ganhar
E a gente aqui não tem nada
Fica pior do que está
Seu moço, tenha vergonha
Acabe a descaração
Deixe o dinheiro do pobre
E roube outro ladrão

Agora vou divertir
Agora vou prosseguir
Quero ver quem vai ficar
Quero ver quem vai sair
Não é obrigado a escutar
Quem não quiser me ouvir

Se morre o rico e o pobre
Enterre o rico e eu
Quero ver quem que separa
O pó do rico do meu
Se lá embaixo há…
 
I have always loved this song from the first time that I heard it on the radio in this area. It got a lot of airplay back in the day.
It is my favorite from Look Around.
 
The protest lyrics of this beautiful song are indicative of the turmoil after the 1964 military takeover of Brazil. After the coup the Bossa Nova movement split and radically changed. One group including Jobim and Roberto Menescal continued writing beautiful love songs. The other group including Carlos Lyra and Nara Leao turned to songs emphasizing social protest. Gilberto Gil who wrote the music to "Roda" fled Brazil for Britain in 1969. He did return to Brazil several years later, and would even become Cultural Minister decades later under a civilian regime after the military leaders returned to their barracks.
 
One thing hearing this in its Portuguese language, it sounds like a very fun song and not having it sung in translation, you have no idea of the protest.
The same can be said of Viola. The Portuguese vocals belie the translation so it sounds like a very romantic song.
 
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The other group including Carlos Lyra and Nara Leao turned to songs emphasizing social protest.
Love Nara Leão -- her vocals on "Lindonéia" are beautiful. I have to admit, when it comes to the Brazilian music of that era, I identify much more with the Gilberto Gils and Nara Leãos and the Caetano Velosos and the Chico Buarques more than the folks who continued to write low-key jazz. But, to me, a big chunk of it is precisely because the social turmoil of the time created such a profound artistic movement that cannot and could not be replicated in any other time. To listen to Tropicália is to listen to a style of music that can only and could only exist at that moment; Jobim on A&M--as beautiful as his writing is (and it is gorgeous)--could exist on Verve Records today.

Also, for the Spanish speakers out there... "roda" is a direct cognate of the Spanish word "rueda." But Brazilians pronounce it closer to "hoda" (think of Hoda Kotb).
 
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