Do Outro Lado de Lá

Your priest, this paper
I got from your hand
When I married Zabé,
Daughter of Saint Christian,
Check out your signature
So faded, it’s dark
It’s even hard to read
But it was you who made it
I came here once again
For you to help me out
Lend me the rosary
And tell me where to kneel
Run and take from the tabernacle
The book that gives advice
Kneel and keep praying
Help me, I’m in need
To take some action
Zabé died three years ago
But she keeps haunting me
And I’m out of patience.
Your father, this document
Or rather, this paper
Is the purest memory
That I kept from the wedding
It deserves so much respect
I can’t even say right
How much this paper’s worth
I kept it with great care
If it’s stained today
Zabé’s the one to blame,
Before we got married
She was a sweet girl
Living life in prayer
Touching the sarafina
Trying to imitate angels
To catch this guy
And she really caught him
With the ropes of bad habits
Soaked in jealousy
I don’t know where she found it.
I spent twenty-five years
Living in this torment
And it’s been three years since I’ve been
In purgatory
All because of Zabé
After the honeymoon
She got jealous
And even when she dreamed
She’d jump up and wake up
Just to fight with me.
And I’d say, Zabé...
Cut out this nonsense
You’re my woman
Stop with the jealousy
What’s bad doesn’t matter
Go to mass, confess,
And did she go? Not at all,
She’d jump into the yard
Of that old trickster
The priest of the hoodoo.
In the macumba yard
She looked like a clown,
Learned to play the zabumba,
Drink and smoke cachaça
Pulling fish and fighting
And if I tried to advise her
Zabé would turn into a beast
Got fever, got sick
Spent five, six days
Holding a candle.
But worse than Zabé
The sun doesn’t cover another loser
Wherever she stepped
Grass never grew again
She liked some gossip
Some chatter, some rumors
Things from petty people
She’d come in and out
With eyes like embers
I don’t know where the hell she came from.
And sent, I don’t know to whom
One day she got drunk
Fell off the train car
Died but didn’t die
Her priest came here
Took her to the gong
Gave her some magic passes
Along with her spirit
Zabé fell asleep
Died that very day.
Thank God, I got rid
Of that cross I was carrying
But one night I dreamed
That Zabé came and went
I woke up smelling
Of quince leaves
With smoke from scales
I opened my eyes and saw a shadow
Throwing insults at me
Sitting at the foot of the bed.
Ah, your priest, at that moment
I got colder than ice
Chills ran through me
All my hair stood up
I’ve never been one to shake
Never been one to fear
Ghosts or faces,
But when I saw that creature
I felt like an idiot
I lost my breath and courage.
The prayers that work,
I prayed until I was tired
I prayed the creed backwards,
The rosary all tangled
The Our Father in a whisper
The prayer of Saint Longinus
That my grandma taught me,
But the more I prayed
The more the soul sank
Under the blanket.
And I was thinking to myself
What the hell does this soul want
I touched my belly
To see if it was a woman
It was indeed Zabé
She gave me a shiver
A cold and a fright
I was all goosebumps
Like a cornered animal
By ten mangy mutts.
I forgot the prayer
To drive away ugly things
Also, with so much distress
Who wouldn’t get anxious
That’s why I came to ask you
To run, please
To the grave where Zabé is
Throw some holy water
To see if the pest holds up
On the other side of there.