Samba da Bênção

It's better to be happy than to be sad
Joy is the best thing there is
It's like the light in the heart

But to make a samba with beauty
It takes a good amount of sadness
It takes a good amount of sadness
Otherwise, a samba isn't made

'Otherwise it's like loving a woman just because she's pretty. So what? A woman has to have something beyond beauty, something sad, something that cries, something that misses. A sway of wounded love, a beauty that comes from the sadness of knowing oneself as a woman, made only to love, to suffer for love, and to be all forgiveness.'

Making samba isn't telling jokes
And those who make samba like that are nothing
Good samba is a form of prayer

Because samba is the swinging sadness
And sadness always has hope
Sadness always has hope
Of one day not being sad anymore

'Made for those people who go around playing with life. Be careful, buddy! Life is for real. And don't fool yourself, there's only one. Two even, which is good, no one will tell me they have without proving very well proven, with a certificate issued in Heaven's registry office and signed below 'God', and with a recognized signature! Life isn't a joke, friend. Life is the art of encounters, although there are so many disconnections in life. There's always a woman waiting for you with eyes full of affection and hands full of forgiveness. Put a little love in your life like in your samba.'

Put a little love in a rhythm
And you'll see that no one in the world wins
The beauty that a samba has, no

Because samba was born in Bahia
And if today it's white in poetry
If today it's white in poetry
It's too black in the heart

'I, for example, the captain-of-the-woods Vinícius de Moraes, poet and diplomat. The whitest black man in Brazil, in the direct line of Xangô. Hail! (chorus: Hail!) Blessing Lady, the greatest ialorixá of Bahia, land of Caymmi and João Gilberto. Blessing Pixinguinha, you who cried on the flute all my love sorrows. Blessing Lord. Blessing Cartola. Blessing Ismael Silva. Your blessing Heitor dos Prazeres. Blessing Nelson Cavaquinho. Blessing Geraldo Pereira. Blessing my good Ciro Monteiro you, nephew of Nonô. Blessing Noel. Your blessing Ari. Blessing all the great sambistas of my Brazil white, black, mulatto, beautiful like the soft skin of Oxum. Blessing maestro Antônio Carlos Jobim, partner and dear friend who have traveled so many songs with me and there are still so many to travel. Blessing Carlinhos Lyra, 100% partner, you who unite action with feeling and thought. Blessing! Blessing Baden-Powell, new friend, new partner who made this samba with me. Blessing friend! Blessing to maestro Moacir Santos, who is not one but many, many like my Brazil of all saints, including my São Sebastião. Hail! The blessing that I'm going to leave, I'll have to say goodbye.'

Put a little love in a rhythm
And you'll see that no one in the world wins
The beauty that a samba has, no

Because samba was born in Bahia
And if today it's white in poetry
If today it's white in poetry
It's too black in the heart