Meaning title: Tigress / Tijgerin
Music & lyrics: Caetano Veloso
Performance: Gal Costa
Português
Uma tigresa de unhas negras
e íris cor de mel
Uma mulher, uma beleza
que me aconteceu
Esfregando a pele de ouro marrom
do seu corpo contra o meu
Me falou que o mal é bom
e o bem cruel
Enquanto os pelos dessa deusa
tremem ao vento ateu
Ela me conta, sem certeza,
tudo o que viveu
Que gostava de política em 1966
E hoje dança no Frenetic Dancing Days
Ela me conta que era atriz
e trabalhou no Hair
Com alguns homens foi feliz,
com outros foi mulher
Que tem muito ódio no coração,
que tem dado muito amor
E espalhado muito prazer
e muita dor
Mas ela ao mesmo tempo diz
que tudo vai mudar
Porque ela vai ser o que quis,
inventando um lugar
Onde a gente e a natureza feliz
vivam sempre em comunhão
E a tigresa possa mais do que o leão
As garras da felina
me marcaram o coração
Mas as besteiras de menina
que ela disse, não
E eu corri pra o violão num lamento
e a manhã nasceu azul
Como é bom poder tocar um instrumento
English
A tigress with black fingernails
and hazel iris
A woman, a beauty
that happened to me
Rubbing her golden brown skin
of her body against mine
She told me that evil is good
and good is cruel
While the hairs of this goddess
shiver in the atheist wind
She tells me, no being sure,
Everything she's been through
That she liked politics in 1966
And now she dances in Frenetic Dancing Days*
She tells me she was an actress
and she played in "Hair"
She was happy with a few men,
with others she was a wife
That she has much hate in her heart,
that she has given much love
And has been spreading much pleasure
and much pain
But at the same time she says
that everything is going to change
Cause she will become what she wanted to be
inventing a place
Where people and the happy nature
live always in communion
And the tigress has more power than the lion
The claws of the feline
have marked my heart
But the girly nonsense
that she told didn't
And I sought refuge in my guitar in a lament
and dawn turned blue
How good it is being able to play an instrument
* This song was ritten by Caetano Veloso in later 1970's, when Brazil was ruled by dictatorship. That's why is sung that the tigress liked policy in 1966.
When is sung that she dances in frenetic dancing days he refers to a Brazilian soap opera called Dancing Days which made an awesome success in 1978.
The main music of the soap opera was sung by a girl group called Frenéticas.
Nederlands
Een tijgerin met zwarte nagels
en honingkleurige iris
Een vrouw, een schoonheid
die mij overkwam
Wreef haar goudgebronsde huid
van haar lichaam tegen dat van mij
Zij vertelde mij dat slecht goed is
en goed is wreed
Terwijl de haartjes van deze godin
trillen in de atheïstische wind
Zij verteld mij, zonder zekerheid,
alles wat zij heeft meegemaakt
Dat zij hield van politiek in 1966
En nu danst zij in Frenetic Dancing Days
Zij vertelt dat zij een actrice was
en speelde in "Hair"
Met enkele mannen was zij gelukkig,
met andere was zij getrouwd
Dat zij veel haat heeft in haar hart,
dat zij veel liefde heeft gegeven
En heeft veel plezier verspreid
en veel pijn
Maar tegelijkertijd zegt ze
dat alles gaat veranderen
Omdat zij zal worden wat zij wilde zijn,
een plaats ontdekkend
Waar mensen en de gelukkige natuur
voor altijd samenleven
En de tijgerin heeft meer macht dan de leeuw
De klauwen van de kat
hebben mijn hart gemarkeerd
Maar de meisjesachtige onzin
die zij vertelde niet
Ik zocht toevlucht tot mijn gitaar in een klaagzang
en de ochtend kleurde blauw
Wat is het toch fijn om een instrument te spelen