Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note to Reader
- Foreword: The Music Politics of Norberto Tavares
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Son of Santa Catarina: Norberto Tavares’s Early Years (1956–73)
- 2 Cabo Verde and Its Traditions in Context
- 3 Revolutions and Transformations (1973–75)
- 4 Volta pa fonti: A Return to the Source for Musical Inspiration and Grounding (1976–79)
- 5 Starting Again in America (1979–88)
- 6 Playing My Culture (1988–)
- 7 Opening the Door to Democracy: Norberto Tavares Goes Home (1990)
- 8 Changing Scenes in New England (1991–99)
- 9 The Final Years (2000–2010)
- Epilogue: The Legacy of Norberto Tavares
- Works Cited
- Index
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Note to Reader
- Foreword: The Music Politics of Norberto Tavares
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- Introduction
- 1 Son of Santa Catarina: Norberto Tavares’s Early Years (1956–73)
- 2 Cabo Verde and Its Traditions in Context
- 3 Revolutions and Transformations (1973–75)
- 4 Volta pa fonti: A Return to the Source for Musical Inspiration and Grounding (1976–79)
- 5 Starting Again in America (1979–88)
- 6 Playing My Culture (1988–)
- 7 Opening the Door to Democracy: Norberto Tavares Goes Home (1990)
- 8 Changing Scenes in New England (1991–99)
- 9 The Final Years (2000–2010)
- Epilogue: The Legacy of Norberto Tavares
- Works Cited
- Index
Summary
“N’sta farto dês tchon” (I’m tired of this ground) from Volta pa fonti, 1979.
I looked at the sea and saw a fish
I envied its swimming
I looked at the sky and saw a dove
I envied its wings
Fish dove down, never to return
Dove ascended, vanishing in the clouds
And I am imprisoned on earth
Fish dove down, never to return
Dove ascended, vanishing in the clouds
And I am imprisoned on earth
Fish, in the deep and pure sea
Dove, in the vast, endless sky
Me, on this land that is crowded
And dirty
I’m tired of this ground
Fish, in the deep and pure sea
Dove, in the vast, endless sky
Me, on this land that is crowded
And dirty
I’m tired of this land
Fish, teach me
To swim to the bottom of the sea
Dove, teach me
To fly high in the sky
I want to know the endless gardens
At the bottom of the sea
I want to know all the many planets
That are in the heavens.
Norberto Tavares wrote the song “N’sta farto dês tchon” in 1978, when he was twenty-two years old and living in Portugal. Around 2004 he wrote the lyrics for this song down on paper for me, and we worked together to translate it. We talked through each line, trying to capture the right nuances of meaning in English as we had done for many other of his songs, placing his lyrics on the top line and our negotiated translation in English underneath (figure I.1). The image is included here to illuminate the slow, messy process behind the translation of words, musical styles, meanings, and contexts from one culture to another. The song lyrics express the desire to transcend earthly bonds in order to explore the ocean’s depths and heavens above with the freedom of a fish or a bird—to escape the chains of dirty human existence. The song can be viewed as a metaphor for Tavares’s lifelong quests—to make life better for people in postcolonial Cabo Verde through his musical messages, and to burst through a wall of unanswered existential questions in order to understand his own life’s meaning.
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- Information
- Songs for Cabo VerdeNorberto Tavares's Musical Visions for a New Republic, pp. 1 - 28Publisher: Boydell & BrewerPrint publication year: 2021