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Translation
Haiti
When you're invited to go on the balcony
Of the House of Jorge Amado Foundation1
To see from above a line of soldiers, almost all of them black
Beating the necks of black thugs
Of birracial thieves and others almost white
And treated like blacks
Just to show to other almost black people
(And almost all of them are almost black)
And to almost white people who are poor like black people
How is it that black, poor and birracial people
And white people who are almost black for being so poor must be treated
And it doesn't matter if the eyes of the whole world
Are looking at the square just across the Foundation
Where slaves used to be punished
And today Black Brazilian music is played
With the purity of boys wearing high school uniforms
In a parade day
And the epic greatness of a people in formation
Attracts us, amazes us and excites us
Nothing matters:
Not the lines of the houses
Not the lenses of Fantástico2
Not the album of Paul Simon
No one, no one is a citizen
If you go to the party of Pelourinho3, and if you don't go
Think of Haiti, pray for Haiti
Haiti is here
Haiti isn't here
And if on TV you see a congressman in a poorly dissimulated panic
In face of any, I mean any, any, any
National education plan that seem easy
That seem easy and fast
And that poses a threat of democratization
Of basic education
And if this same congressman defends the implementation of death penalty
And the venerable cardinal say that he sees so much soul in a fetus
And no soul in a criminal
And if, when you're running your usual red light
You notice a man pissing in the corner on a sparkling
Trash bag in Leblon4
And if you hear São Paulo's smiling silence
In face of the massacre
Of 111 helpless inmates5, but inmates are black most of the times
Or almost black, or almos white almost black for being so poor
And as poor, they are as rotten, and everyone know how blacks are treated
And when you take a trip around the Caribbean
And when you fuck without a condom
And present your clever participation in the embargo against Cuba
Think of Haiti, pray for Haiti
Haiti is here
Haiti isn't here
- 1. In Pelourinho, and just across from it is the Church of the Third Order of Our Lady of the Rosary of the Black People
- 2. A popular Sunday night TV show
- 3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historic_Center_of_Salvador
- 4. An upper-middle class/high class neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro
- 5. Carandiru prison massacre by the police in São Paulo in 1992
juliaalvares✕
Caetano Veloso: Top 3
| 1. | Cucurrucucu Paloma |
| 2. | O Leãozinho |
| 3. | Você É Linda |
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