Today I was browsing through my collection of notes and scribbles when I stumbled upon a quadra I wrote a few years ago. I completely forgot about it, and was happy to find it again. I’m still proud of it, since it was also my first attempt at writing a song. So I’d decided to share it.
(I am not sure if the grammar is 100% correct)
Onde há luz também há trevas camaráPortuguese
no escuro não pode ver
se ele é inimigo ou amigo
então joga para você ver,
Where there is light, there is darkness comradeEnglish
in the dark you cannot see
whether he is an enemy or a friend
so play to find out,
Explanation
The first line is an obvious metaphor: there is no light without darkness, all good things have a negative side, the glass is always half full, …
The second line is about how you can’t find light when you’re surrounded by darkness. With that I mean, you won’t find anything positive if you keep looking at all the negative things.
If you add the third line, the meaning changes: you can’t trust a capoeira if you don’t know him, you don’t know whether he is a friend or a foe.
In the fourth line I urge you to step into the light and go find out yourself. Only by playing with someone, you’ll have a chance of discovering his true motives (does he want to fight you, or play a nice game?).
The capoeira roda is the light, the place where you learn to see and where you pick up positive energy. When you are always on the sidelines, just watching and being diffident, while never experiencing it yourself, you are in the shadows.
You can only truly learn capoeira by stepping into the roda (the light).
PS: quadras are a useful tool when learning to improvise in songs!
— Vinho
I like how youre focusing mostly on lyrics. I always wonder what theyre singing about. There is this video i was watching.. and again.. i wanted to k ow what theyre singing about. So i search google. But found your blog!
Heres the video…
https://www.instagram.com/p/Bhm6sZYnRSd/
Any ideas?
Hi,
When I started this blog it wasn’t my plan to focus on music, but it just turned out this way. It’s an aspect of capoeira I’m more passionate about I guess.
About the video you shared. They’re singing:
é maré de maré
vou pra Ilha de Maré
é maré de maré
vou pra Ilha de Maré
It is most commonly sung as a part of “A maré ‘tá cheia ioio”, one of my favorite corridos:
A maré ‘tá cheia ioio, a maré tá cheia iaia
a maré tá cheia ioio, a maré tá cheia iaia
a maré subiu
sobe maré
a maré desceu
desce maré
é maré de maré
vou pra Ilha de Maré
olha o peixa pulou na maré, olha o peixe pulou na maré
olha o peixa pulou na maré, olha o peixe pulou na maré
But most people don’t know these are actually totally separate songs. The lines “A maré subiu/desceu” and “vou pra ilha de maré” are one song, written by Mestre China Axé of ECAAM.He said: “This corrido is an homage to Ilha de Maré at a time when I was a little disappointed in some friends.”
The lines “A maré tá cheia ioio” and “Olha o peixe pulou na maré” have nothing to do with Mestre China Axé’s corrido, but they got mixed along the way and people now regard it as one song.
Mestre China Axé wrote a “sequel” to his corrido which goes like this:
a maré encheu, a maré vazou
a maré encheu, a maré vazou
A maré, maré
vou por cima da maré
A maré, maré
vou por cima da maré
So that’s the whole story behind the song in the video 🙂