Tudo isto é fado

All this is Fado

When I was first learning Portuguese, I turned to fado primarily as a means of learning the language. I soon found that my vocabulary to deal with sorrow, suffering, and sobbing had rocketed. I had also fallen in love with the music.

Fado is a form of traditional Portuguese music and song which is invariably tinged with melancholy, and above all, with longing. The word itself comes originally from the Latin, fatum, meaning fate or destiny, and some of the most powerful fados deal with the often mysterious exigencies of fate, with life’s uncanny ability to dispel the notion that we have any real control over the paths that our lives take. Whilst reason may try to persuade us that we are in command, fado reminds us how little we can really know or understand. Like wrack thrown onto the shore by the crashing waves of the Atlantic, we find ourselves torn apart by emotion, and by the unforeseeable and often cruel events that life decides to throw in our paths; love and desire, jealousy and bitterness, anguish and pain. But also hope, and it is this gentle but persistent hope which enables us to cling to life. We may be battered and broken, but our hearts keep beating, and it is this beating which gives rise to courage, and to the rhythm of the fado.

Tudo isto é fado is a classic fado, sung by the undisputed queen of the genre, Amália Rodrigues (1920 - 1999). There is much to be said about this song and about Amália, but for now I’ll simply leave you with Portugal’s greatest fadista, as she offers some defining images to depict the mystery of fado; “love, jealousy, ashes and flames, sorrow and sin…”





Tudo isto é fado

Perguntaste-me outro dia
Se eu sabia o que era o fado
Disse-te que não sabia
Tu ficaste admirado
Sem saber o que dizia
Eu menti naquela hora
Disse-te que não sabia
Mas vou-te dizer agora

Almas vencidas
Noites perdidas
Sombras bizarras
Na Mouraria
Canta um rufia
Choram guitarras
Amor ciúme
Cinzas e lume
Dor e pecado
Tudo isto existe
Tudo isto é triste
Tudo isto é fado

Se queres ser o meu senhor
E teres-me sempre a teu lado
Nao me fales só de amor
Fala-me também do fado
E o fado é o meu castigo
Só nasceu pr'a me perder
O fado é tudo o que digo
Mais o que eu não sei dizer.



Tout cela est fado

Tu m’as demandée l’autre jour
Si je savais ce que c’est le fado
J’ai dit que je ne savais pas
Et tu semblais étonné
Sans savoir ce que je disais
Je t’ai menti ce jour-là
Je t’ai dit que je ne savais pas
Mais je vais te le dire maintenant

Âmes vaincues
Nuits perdues
Ombres bizarres
Dans le quartier des maures
Un vagabond chante
Des guitares pleurent
Amour, jalousie
Cendres et flammes
Douleur et péché
Tout ça existe
Tout ça est triste
Tout ça est fado

Si tu veux être mon homme
Et m’avoir toujours à côté de toi
Ne me parle pas seulement de l’amour
Parle-moi aussi de fado
Le fado est mon châtiment
Il est né uniquement pour me perdre
Le fado est tout ce que je dis
Et tout ce je ne sais pas dire



All this is Fado

You asked me the other day
Whether I knew what fado was
I told you I didn’t know
And you seemed surprised
Without knowing what I was saying
I lied to you that day
I told you that I did not know
But I am going to tell you now

Vanquished souls
Lost nights
Strange shadows
In the Moorish quarter
A vagabond sings
Guitars cry
Love, jealousy
Ashes and flames
Sorrow and sin
All this exists
All this is sad
All this is fado

If you want to be my man
And have me always by your side
Don’t speak to me only of love
Speak to me also of fado
Fado is my punishment
It was born just to make me lost
Fado is everything I say
And more, which I don’t know how to say