Garrett was an Almeida, a writer and playwright who created one of the most dramatic scenes of the Portuguese theater (in Frei Luis de Sousa, 1843). Between Almada and Lisbon, the action has a Tagus the middle, half a sea that separates the two sides and the plots in the play.
Garrett is the name of a catamaran that crosses the Tagus river ... The same that witnesses many other stories, equally dramatic or happy. I am glad that above its waters I can be inspired and evade myself in my own thoughts. Most of them vanish as soon as the boat docks in the wharf. Some I dock at words with which I write many of my texts. Like this, which by now was berthed at Cais do Sodré. And I ascend to the Camões square.
Garrett is the name of a street that runs through downtown Lisbon, that on August 25, 1988 witnessed a fire that made Chiado a spectacle of fire and smoke, and on that day all the weekenders wanted and could testify. Exactly 26 years ago, from the fourth floor where we lived, near the Causeway of Combro, from the window of our house, I could also watch the smoke covering the city. I could feel it as a harbinger of what was a passage of time from the Grandela to the current time, to the shopping center that ended the tradition of purchasing on that mythical commercial space. After lengthy years of reconstruction, weekenders could create new tradition of consumption to that iconic and busy area. On this stree you can no longer purchase milk.
Garrett was the name of a milk shop on Chiado, which in turn inspired Vitorino (a popular singer from Alentejo). Many times as a child when I went to school, I passed him on the esplanade of the Lion Tavern (RDP front, down the street from St. Martial, in Lisbon) and he was waiting for inspiration to come. Or that life just passed. With joy I still keep his music on my memory:
Chiado in the evening, sometimes, smiling go hand in hand, Good guys are good Portuguese
Ai Madame your indigestion
The ideal of empregaditas finória Caraça
So goes a costume, wears many cheetahs
Say olé! Pro Montefiorino
Milk shop Garrett tat Ai foot takes his hand, John,
From sweet thigh Already, before it was not ...
The Saricoté was to stop Marques Pras There Fine Arts ...
Anyway is it! (Says the progress) Tea with toast, John,
Where will I go, I've been, but I'm not Linda youth, gone the sun though, It gets me to Saudade ...
Dairy Garrett (1984), Vitorino (free translation) Listen from the video
Vitorino at the Coliseum (Lisbon) 1985 - Leitaria Garrett
Original lyrics:
No Chiado à tardinha, às vezes, Sorridentes vão de mão na mão, Bons rapazes, são bons portugueses Ai Madame a sua indigestão Ideal das empregaditas A finória vai um figurino Tão caraça, veste muitas chitas Diz olé! prò Montefiorino Leitaria Garrett dá cá o pé Ai tira a mão, João, Da coxa doce, Já está, antes não fosse... O Saricoté, foi parar à Marques Lá pràs Belas-Artes... Assim mesmo é que é! (Diz o progresso) Chá com torradas, João, Pra onde é que eu vou, Já fui, mas já não sou Linda mocidade, foi-se o Sol embora, Fica-me à Saudade...
Leitaria Garrett (1984), de Vitorino
* * *
No comments:
Post a Comment