Pernambuco Falando Para O Mundo

Pitomba, preaching, fife and tambourine
This is the meeting, it's this emotion
Queens and kings, folk dance and rojão
Nagô blacks, slave ships
Ascenso, reef, angolas-artisans
Maraca, peddlers and maracatu
Baião, berimbau, bantu drumming
Factory, belly bump, umburana, umbuzal
Capiba, calunga, heat, carnival
Oxossi, obá, oxum, olodu

I am an arm of the sea, a mighty river
In the backlands I am dry, in the forest I burst
I, on the reefs, a pierced sea
The grave of rivers, salty and beautiful
And in this luminous blue sky
To the south of the Southern Cross I saw
By it at night on the sea I guided myself
I am paranã, I am paranabuco
Speaking to the world I am Pernambuco
To read my Brazil I started here*

If someone hears me tinkling my throat
They will see that my song reveals secrets
Ends mysteries, destroys all fears
Heir of the voice I am from Dona Santa
My song is blood, it's enchanting stone
Unearths the treasure in the deepest ground
I am a singer, I am a wanderer
If I'm restless, no one holds me back
Above me, only God in the heights
I am Pernambuco speaking to the world

*verse inspired by a poem from the book
Romançal de Pernambuco by Marcos Cordeiro.