maguinha: Music

• MP3 short clip, hi-fi play (broadband)
• MP3 short clip, lo-fi play (modem)

This song came to me because I am from a village in Goias, in the heart of Brasil, and Pedro Veio was a real character who often walked the streets, singing, and asking for money. With him, came his two daugthers, Maria, and Rosario, who couldn't talk, nor walk, and was serevely deformed. A child hears things. The story is what I heard.
The music is typical of the moda de viola caipira or sertaneja - a real folk tale, in the tradition of the songs of the Brazilian sertao, or backlands. Douglas worked on the melody with me and we really had fun with it.

Ô Gerarda Telle vem me visitá
Um pouquinho só
Ô Gerarda Telle vem me visitá
Um pouquinho só //

Pedro Veio cantô
E a Maria dançô
Pedro Veio cantô
E o passante pagô
Pra olhar a Rosário
Num carrinho de mão

A muié do Pedro morreu
E a fia, a virge Maria
Entrou pra escuridão
Pedro Veio achô
Uma consolação

A menina Maria
Deu à luz
Sua filha-irmã
Seu rosário de lágrimas

Pobre Maria
Aguenta seu pai
Ai que vida, quantos ais
E a Rosário, a boba,
No carrinho boiou.

Translation:

Oh, Gerarda Telle come visit me
for just a little while
Oh, Gerarda Telle come visit me
for just a little while //

Old Pedro sang
And Maria danced
Old Pedro sang
The passer-by paid up
To take a peek at Rosario
In a handcart.

Pedro's wife died
And the daughter,
The virgin Maria
Was entered into darkness
Old Pedro found
Consolation

The girl Maria
Brought into the light
Her sister-daughter
Her rosary of tears

Poor Maria
Hardly stands her father
What a life, so much sorrow
And Rosario the demented
In the handcart was oblivious.