Tempo e Artista

Chico Buarque's song "Tempo e Artista" is a profound meditation on the relationship between time and the artist. The lyrics paint a vivid picture of an artist in an amphitheater where time itself is the main star. This setting serves as a metaphor for the inevitable passage of time and its impact on the artist's life and work. The artist becomes a canvas for time, which shapes and molds them with its imprecise pencil, adding wrinkles and signs of aging as counterweights to their smiles. This imagery suggests that time, while it may bring physical changes, also adds depth and character to the artist's expression.

The song continues to explore how time affects the artist's abilities. As the artist ages, their voice and physical prowess may diminish, but time itself seems to take over, singing and dancing through the artist's body. This idea is beautifully captured in the lines where the old singer takes the stage, and it is time that sings when they open their mouth. Similarly, the exhausted dancer continues to perform, driven by the relentless dance of time. The trembling actor recites a drama that is yet to be written, symbolizing the ongoing and unfinished nature of artistic creation, influenced and shaped by the passage of time.

In the final stanza, Buarque imagines a concert under a starry sky where time reaches its glory, and the artist touches the infinite. This powerful conclusion suggests that through their art, artists can transcend the limitations of time and achieve a form of immortality. The song is a tribute to the enduring spirit of artists and the timeless nature of their work, despite the inevitable changes brought by time. It reflects on the beauty and poignancy of aging, and the eternal dance between time and creativity.