A Violeira

Since I was a girl
Capricious and northeastern
That I knew, my fate
Was to come live in Rio
In Araripe
I ran into the driver of a jeep
Who was going down to Sergipe
For Military Service

This crazy guy
Left me in Pernambuco
When a guy with a musket
Asked me out
Further ahead
In an interesting state
A traveling salesman
Took me to Macapá

A gypsy revealed that my fate
Was to stay in that North
And I didn't want to believe
I gathered my things with an old sailor
I traveled on his cargo ship
That ran aground in Ceará

I returned to Crato
And started making crafts
With good and cheap clay
To save money
I was a young girl
And also made many dolls
One better than the other
They almost speak

I gathered the brood and threw myself into the São Francisco
I faced lightning, thunder
Current and bad things
I even got involved with an artist in Pirapora
Had another child and left
I ended up here in Rio

Seeing Ipanema
Was like drinking jurema
What a movie set
What a poem by the sea
And there's no cop
No doctor, no trickster
I want to see who can take
Us from this place

Is it true
That I arrived in this city
For the first authority
To kick me out
With all my stuff
Rebuild the Mantiqueira
Until reaching the rapids
The São Francisco taking me

Distract myself
In the arms of a sly boatman
Plunge into Paulo Afonso
Drown in the ocean
Lose the children
In Fernando de Noronha
And return dead with shame
To the backlands of Quixadá

Does it make sense
After so much torment
To marry some sergeant
And shatter all dreams
There's no figurehead
No tractor, no lever
I want to see who can pull
Us from this place