Ana Cristina

10 September 2003

Ana Cristina Coutinho is a singer originally from Brazil. She has a delightful voice, and writes much of her music herself. Two pieces deserve special attention:

Fado.
The musical structure is that of a Portuguese fado, but without being trite in any way. Of course Ana Cristina sings it in her own Brazilian style of pronunciation, with is rather different from that of Portuguese fado singers. The choice of instruments is different too, which gives this song a distinct flavour of its own.
The song lyrics were written by the Portuguese poet Luís Eusébio. More about this poem below.
As far as I could find, unfortunately this song is not yet on any of Ana Cristina's CDs.
Lira Romantiquinha .
This is more like what you'd expect of Brazilian music. The poem is by the famous poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade. The music, again by Ana Cristina herself, is really nice to listen to.

This song is a bonus-track on the CD Poemas Musicados, including video's. They can be accessed by playing the CD is a computer, not a CD-player, because this CD is a music CD as well as a CD-ROM.

Fado

To the left is the original poem, as written by © Luís Eusébio. To the right is my rather direct translation. It is not a real translation, in that it does not even attempt to be a poem itself, and also the English is not really good English. Instead, I tried to stay as close to the Portuguese original as possible, intending to enable those who do not understand Portuguese to appreciate the beauty of the original poem.

Fado

Só
Como um rio sem ter leito
Esta voz com que te canto
É para ti demais banal.

Sei
Que nem sabes que existo
E talvez mesmo por isto
Queira por ti ser alguém.

Vê
De que vale a petulância
Para que serve a importância
Que a nós possamos dar...

Se o que vale na vida
Não é a paixão sentida
Mas o ter a quem amar.

Fado

Alleen
Als een rivier zonder bedding
Deze stem waarmee ik voor je zing
Is voor jou te banaal.

Ik weet
Dat je niet eens weet dat ik besta
En misschien juist daarom
Wil ik iemand voor je zijn.

Zie
Wat dartelheid betekent
Waartoe dient het belang
Dat we aan onszelf zouden kunnen hechten...

Als wat er in het leven echt toe doet
Niet de passie is
Maar om iemand te hebben om lief te hebben.

CDs by Ana Cristina:

1993 Outras Esquinas
2000 A Ponte
2002 Diário (in that site click on CDS)
2003 Poemas Musicados (in that site click on CDS)
???? Sobre o Tempo (new project, click on PROJECTOS once in the site)

Links in connection to Ana Cristina:

Ana Cristina
Home page 2000
Clique Música
MPB-net
PalTalk
Olaf Brugman Weblog
Online shop