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The Sights and Voices of Dispossession: The Fight for the Land and the Emerging Culture of the MST (The Movement of the Landless Rural Workers of Brazil)

Language:

English (mude para Português)

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Studies, statements & references -> Statements by Intellectuals and Artists 13 resources (Compiled by Else R P Vieira. Translation © Bernard McGuirk.)

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Author:

Chico Buarque de Hollanda
(Composer, singer and writer. Unbroken career of success for over three decades. An exponent of the politically-committed strain of Brazilian Popular Music. Translated by Bernard McGuirk.)

Title:

Settlement
(Song: countryman leaving the urban centre and returning to rural life in the settlements.)

"When I die may
I be buried
at the clearing’s
edge
happy with my
land
weary of warring
with swollen
heart
I lie"
(Guimarães Rosa)

Ramble here
Ramble there
End of fair, beyond the city’s rim
The city dwells no more in me
Francisco, Serafim
Let’s get away
See the grass
See the baobab
Let’s go and see the blossoming fields
And spawning shoals leaping upstream
Binho, Bel, Bia, Quim
Let’s get away
When I die
Weary of war
I die at one
With my land:
Sugar-cane and persimmon
Yam and pumpkin
Where once the wind sewed
Only open nation, backlands without end
Oh Manuel, Miguilim
Let’s get away

1 Editor’s note: The song translated here, with the author's permission, was recorded by Chico to accompany the exhibition Terra, by Sebastião Salgado. The song "Settlement" is also the sound track of the film O sonho de Rose/ Rose’s dream (1996), by the Brazilian director Tetê Morais.

Date:

November 2002

Resource ID:

SETTLEME452

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