Jeitão de Caboclo

If I could go back to the good times of childhood
Relive youth with great perseverance
Live again in the countryside in the brick house
See the birds singing as the day breaks
I would go back to see the basil plant
The screech owl living in the fence post hollow
The calves in the paddock and our dairy cows
Dad milking early in the morning at the trough

I would go back to see the Taquari stream
With its clear waters where I caught minnows
Our ox cart, the water mill and the sugar cane press
The cows Maria-Preta, Tirolesa, and Prenda
On the big veranda full of cured cheese
And mom baking bread in the wood-fired oven beside
Our reserve of bush, beautiful closed forest
The deep cattle trails cutting through the pasture

I wanted to see the sun with its shining rays
Disappearing behind the mountains stealing our day
The night-blooming jasmine by the Saint John's mast
That still perfumes my imagination
The thing is I can't turn back time
I'm a cocoon without fuzz that can't sing anymore
Today I live in the city losing strength little by little
But I can't lose my country way.