dialogues Fado Lusitano

FADO LUSITANO

Portugal feels himself as a small country at the tip of Europe.

It looks like Spain

... but it isn't

Look at the borders we dug...

... for more than 800 years.

Throughout the years, European refugees came to this narrow piece of land and they created a people who, thanks to their language,

maintain, even today,

an unshakeable internal cohesion

Surrounded by the Spanish and the Arabs, we took to the sea...

... and we became sailors,

With adventure in our veins,

we fought against legendary monsters

and so we sailed on,

expanding the borders of the world.

And to prevent any future animosities we divided the world with Spain

But while the Spaniards demonstrated how to be "a hombre de cojones" (a man with balls),

we amused ourselves demonstrating how to use the "cojones de 1'hombre” (the balls of the man), mixing with local populations, cherishing this strange family all over the centuries.

As tradesmen, we established new ties

between the most diverse cultures

from every corner of the world.

And we became a tasty prey for pirates and usurers.

And as slave-traders, we dirtied the glory we achieved

In a last and supreme effort, we followed an impossible dream

in search of the vanity of power, we invaded North Africa under D. Sebastião

-"Check...

..Mate!

But our good ship of fortune wrecked!

-So many work and now we stand and watch ships passing us by!" Even today, on foggy mornings, we wait for King Sebastião.

Resigned to our fate, we dream about the saviour; about the one who will bring back the glories of our past and will solve all our problems...

"Proudly alone!"

With the misery and the shades of History in our soul,

we left again, searching for survival and dignity

and, once again, we spread around the world.

But there is always a voice calling us back.

“To sing the nostalgia

I'd rather invent

guitars of the storm

voices tired of the sea

Nostalgia is a mourning

is a pain

a grief

it is a purple curtain

around my heart”

It is useless to try to forget 500 years of wandering around.

When yesterday, fearlessly we left to discover the world,

when yesterday, resignedly, we left looking for life,

today, trustfully, we embark to the new European adventure.