Fado Perdição

Perdition

Even in a genre not shy of evoking emotion, Fado Perdição is exceptionally heart-rending. We find ourselves confronted with a character who has been irreparably ravaged by the pain of broken love.

This version is sung by Cristina Branco, another leading light in the younger generation of fado. Although perhaps less known internationally than her contemporary, Mariza, Branco is certainly no less talented. Bringing a certain modesty and simplicity to her interpretations, she is particularly admired for the clarity and purity of her diction, and for the finely controlled emotional depth of her fados.

Branco herself claims to have had no interest in fado until she was 18. Like many young Portuguese growing up after the revolution of 1974, she considered the tradition as something belonging to another generation. But legend has it that at a dinner party amongst friends, she decided to give fado singing a go, just for fun. Cristina Branco the fadista was born.

As with many young Portuguese musicians making their way in fado at the turn of the century, she also benefitted from the resurgence of interest in fado within Portugal which sprung from the period of national mourning following the death of Amália in 1999. Branco similarly shares with her generation of fadistas the firm belief that respect for the traditions of fado must go hand in hand with constant renewal and revitalisation. She has embraced the fusion of fado with other musical categories, for instance, in her latest album, Fado Tango, combining the themes of desire, suffering and longing common to both genres of music.

In this song, the fadista sings of a love comparable not to a river, but to the immensity of the ocean; vast, profound and immeasurably powerful. Engaged in a battle with her own mind and her memories, the singer tries desperately to forget the past, but like a shadow it follows her every step. The harder she tries to forget, the stronger the resurgence of the memories which torment her, as her lover appears everywhere; his name is entwined in the wind, his eyes give rise to the earth and the skies.

Once again, images of the unreliability of the eyes and the act of seeing run throughout this fado. The fadista is haunted by the eyes of her lover, which seem to reappear constantly, and most hauntingly, within her own eyes as she gazes at her reflection in the mirror. In a similar vein, the fadista speaks of ‘nossa voz’; she and her physically absent, but mentally ever-present lover have come to share one voice, one identity. No matter how fast she runs, he will always follow her, enlaced in the waves of the sea, in the wind and the skies, buried within her eyes and within her soul.







Fado Perdição

Este amor não é um rio
Tem a vastidão do mar
E a dança verde das ondas
Soluçam no meu olhar

Tentei esquecer as palavras
Nunca ditas entre nós
Mas pairam sobre o silêncio
Nas margens da nossa voz

Tentei esquecer os teus olhos
Que não sabem ler nos meus
Mas neles nasce alvorada
Que amanhece a terra e os céus

Tentei esquecer o teu nome
Arrancá-lo ao pensamento
Mas regressa a todo instante
Entrelaçado no vento

Tentei ver a minha imagem
Mas foi a tua que vi
No meu espelho porque trago
Os olhos rasos de ti

Este amor não é um rio
Tem abismos como o mar
E o manto negro das ondas
Cobre-me de negro olhar

Este amor não é um rio
Tem a vastidão do mar


Fado Perdition

Cet amour n’est pas une rivière
Il a l’immensité de la mer
Et la danse verte des vagues
Qui sanglotent dans mon regard

J’ai tenté d’oublier les mots
Jamais prononcés entre nous
Mais ils flottent au-dessus du silence
En marge de notre voix

J’ai tenté d’oublier tes yeux
Qui ne savent pas lire dans les miens
Mais en elles naît l’aube
Qui annonce la terre et les cieux

J’ai tenté d’oublier ton nom
De l’arracher de ma pensée
Mais il revient à chaque instant
Enlacé dans le vent

J’ai tenté de voir mon image
Mais c’était la tienne que j’ai vue
Dans mon miroir, parce que j’emporte
Tes yeux simples avec moi

Cet amour n’est pas une rivière
Il a des abîmes comme la mer
Et le manteau noir des vagues
Me couvre d’un regard noir

Cet amour n’est pas une rivière
Il a l’immensité de la mer


Fado of Perdition

This love is not a river
It has the vastness of the sea
And the green dance of the waves
Which sob within my gaze

I tried to forget the words
Never said between us
But they float above the silence
In the margins of our voice

I tried to forget your eyes
Which do not know how to read mine
But within them is born the dawn
Which gives birth to the earth and the skies

I tried to forget your name
To tear it out of my thoughts
But it comes back in every moment
Entwined with the wind

I tried to see my own image
But it was yours that I saw
In my mirror, because I carry within me
Your own plain eyes

This love is not a river
It has abysses like the sea
And the black cape of its waves
Covers me in its black gaze

This love is not a river
It has the vastness of the sea