Antonio Carlos Jobim’s songs are superbly well-crafted, both melodically and harmonically. Jobim worked closely with a number of Brazilian lyricists, perhaps most notably Vinicius de Moraes and Newton Mendonça, for his best-known bossa novas. Jobim wrote his own lyrics for some songs also, later in his career.
Although the original Portuguese lyrics to his songs are generally poetic and well-matched to the music, the same cannot be said for many of the English-language versions of his classic bossas. Most of these translations were written by Ray Gilbert, Norman Gimbel, Gene Lees, and Jon Hendricks.
Jobim's dissatisfaction with the English versions is discussed in two books by knowledgeable Jobim biographers - Bossa Nova: The story of the Brazilian Music that Seduced the World, by Ruy Castro, and Antonio Carlos Jobim: An Illuminated Man, by Helena Jobim (the composer's sister). Besides the sometimes-questionable artistic quality of the English lyrics, there is also a business aspect: the writers of translated lyrics are legally regarded as co-composers, and therefore share in the royalties. It appears that Ray Gilbert, in particular, profited at Jobim’s expense.
Jobim was enthusiastic at first about having these people create English lyrics for the US market, but as time went on, he grew to dislike many of those versions. There wasn't much he could do about it, after those versions of his most famous songs had been popularized in the US in the late 1950s and early 1960s, by Frank Sinatra and other popular musicians. When Jobim began writing his own English lyrics, he was able to provide the artistic level that his music deserved. “Waters of March,” for example, is about as perfect as it could be, in its English version.
Helena Jobim describes Tom Jobim's early collaboration with Ray Gilbert:
[Jobim] was allowed to enter the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) through Ray Gilbert, an American lyricist who had worked for Carmen Miranda and Aloysio de Oliveira. Tom realized Ray’s potential and the value of his translations and of his new partners. With Tom’s help, Ray was capable of producing quality versions of Tom’s lyrics.
Gilbert would have seemed like a good choice for an American lyricist. He had worked for Disney, and had received an Oscar in 1947 for writing the lyrics to "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah," featured in Disney's movie "Song of the South." (Music for that tune was by Ally Wrubel, who also wrote the jazz standards "Gone With the Wind" and "The Masquerade is Over.")
Toward the end of 1964, Tom went to Los Angeles, where he initially stayed at a small hotel called the Sunset Marquis, on Alta Loma Road. Thereza could not join him until one month later, because she needed to spend more time with their children. When she arrived, they moved to a small house on Norma Place, which Ray Gilbert had suggested. Tom continued writing English versions of his songs with him. The lyrics that resulted from this collaboration with Gilbert became the seeds for the recordings that would follow—those he did with Andy Williams, others with Frank Sinatra, and the ones by Tom alone.
Ray Gilbert wrote English lyrics for Jobim's "Dindi,""Once I Loved," "If you Never Come to Me," "I Was Just One More for You," "Don't Ever Go Away," "She's a Carioca," "Favela," "Bonita," and "Fotographia," among others.
From Ruy Castro's book:
The fact that [Ray Gilbert] applied his meaningless lyrics to a large number of Jobim's songs, perhaps preventing them from going even further in vocal cover versions, was merely to be expected. But of course, as their editor, through his links to RioCali and Ipanema Music, Ray Gilbert also acquired ownership of the songs. In fact, he did even better than that because he earned a 50 percent share of the profits for each song as editor, plus a percentage for being a partner in each one. In the case of a song that Jobim had written alone, like "Fotografia," Gilbert got 75 percent of the money.
To me, it looks as if the generally less-then-satisfactory English lyrics, as well as the less-than-optimal financial arrangements, resulted from 1) Jobim's early enthusiasm about accessing the American popular music market, 2) his ill-advised trusting attitude and inattention to legal matters, and 3) his less-than-perfect English skills.
There is more detail about Ray Gilbert and financial matters in the books by Ruy Castro and Helena Jobim, including how Gilbert persuaded Jobim to transfer ownership of their jointly-owned Ipanema Music to him, but I'll leave it at that.
Other American lyricists with whom Jobim collaborated are Jon Hendricks, Norman Gimbel, and Gene Lees. Below are lyrics for six well-known Jobim songs. For each song, I have shown the original Portuguese lyrics for the first few stanzas, followed by a Google translate version (lightly edited for correctness by my friend Guto), followed by the English version.
Chega de Saudade
(Portuguese by Vinicius de Moraes, English by Jon Hendricks)
In a video interview (you can view it at the end of this post), Ruy Castro singles this one out as a particularly inappropriate translation. As an American who does not speak Portuguese, I’m certain that I am missing a lot of subtlety in Vinicius’ original poetry, but the relative shallowness of Hendricks’ version is still obvious. Hendricks is best known for his part in the jazz vocal group “Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross,” and in his own way had quite a bit of experience writing lyrics. Hendricks retitled this song "No More Blues."
Opening stanzas, original:
Vai, minha tristeza
E diz a ela que sem ela não pode ser
Diz-lhe, numa prece, que ela regresse
Porque eu não posso mais sofrer
Chega de saudade
A realidade é que sem ela não há paz
Não há beleza, é só tristeza e a melancolia
Que não sai de mim, não sai de mim, não sai
Literal translation (Google translate):
Go, my sadness
And tell her that without her it can't be
Tell her, in a prayer, that she comes back
Because I can't suffer anymore
Enough of longing
The reality is that without her there is no peace
There is no beauty, it's just sadness and melancholy
That doesn't leave me, doesn't leave me, doesn't leave
Lyrics by Jon Hendricks:
No more bluesI'm going back homeNo, no more duesI promise no more to roam
Home is where the heart isThe funny part isMy heart's been right home all along
No more tears and no more sighsAnd no more fearsI'll say no more good-byesIf trouble beckons me, I vow I'm gonna refuse (etc.)
Girl from Ipanema
(Portuguese by Vinicius de Moraes, English by Norman Gimbel)
In 1963, Gimbel was introduced by music publisher Lou Levy to a group of young Brazilian bossa nova composers, including Antônio Carlos Jobim, Luiz Bonfá and Baden Powell, for whose works he started writing English-language lyrics...Most notably, he created the lyrics for Marcos Valle's "Summer Samba," also known as "So Nice", as well as Jobim's "How Insensitive", "The Girl from Ipanema" (turning it into a top hit for Astrud Gilberto) and "Meditation", which has gained the status of a "classic" in the jazz and bossa nova genres. He also provided the lyrics for French composers Michel Legrand (two themes from The Umbrellas of Cherbourg—"Watch What Happens" and the Oscar-nominated "I Will Wait for You")... He also provided the lyrics for Belgian jazz harmonica player Toots Thielemans ("Bluesette").
Opening stanzas, original:
Olha que coisa mais linda, mais cheia de graça
É ela, menina, que vem e que passa
Num doce balanço a caminho do mar
Moça do corpo dourado, do Sol de Ipanema
O seu balançado é mais que um poema
É a coisa mais linda que eu já vi passar
Literal translation (Google translate):
Look at this beautiful being, so full of grace
It's her, girl, who comes and passes
In a sweet swing on her way to the sea
Girl with a golden body, from the Sun of Ipanema
Her swing is more than a poem
It's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen pass by
Lyrics by Norman Gimbel:
Tall and tan and young and lovely
The girl from Ipanema goes walking
And when she passes
Each one she passes goes "ah"
When she walks, she's like a samba
That swings so cool and sways so gently
That when she passes, each one she passes goes "ah"
Favela
(Portuguese by Vinicius, English by Ray Gilbert)
A "favela" is a slum, or shantytown. In Rio, favelas are on the hill. Jobim's original title, "O morro nao tem vez," translates to "The hill never gets its turn." Gilbert's title was "Somewhere in the Hills." To say that Gilbert's lyrics do not respect the original is an understatement.
From Wikipedia:
In 1964, not shortly after the song was released, the Brazilian government suffered a coup and was replaced by a military dictatorship. During this time, many musicians and composers, including songwriters Jobim and de Moraes, were arrested and interrogated by the police or had their telephones and mail tapped for creating "subversive" music. While bossa nova has not usually been regarded as having political themes, the song became one of the genre's only protest songs due to its subject surrounding the favelas.Opening stanzas, original:
The phrase "o morro não tem vez" has since been used in opposition of economic injustice in Brazil.
O morro não tem vez
E o que ele fez já foi demais
Mas olhem bem vocês
Quando derem vez ao morro
Toda a cidade vai cantar
Morro pede passagem
Morro quer se mostrar
Abram alas pro morro
Tamborim vai falar
É 1, é 2, é 3, é 100
É 1000 a batucar
Literal translation (Google):
The hill never gets its turn
And it has already done a lot
But look, you all
When you give the hill its turn
The whole city will sing
The hill asks for passage
The hill wants to show itself
Make way for the hill
The tamborim will speak
It's 1, it's 2, it's 3, it's 100
It's 1000 drumming
Lyrics by Ray Gilbert:
His eyes couldn′t laugh, I made them laugh
His arm's a world of thrills
The moon looked down and smiled
On a summer love to see it blossoming somewhere in the hills
The breeze was cool, his kiss was fire
The night birds sang their trills
And when the moon was gone, hidden by the clouds
I put the fire out somewhere in the hills
Desafinado
(Portuguese by Newton Mendonça, English versions by Jon Hendricks and by Gene Lees)
Mendonça was a pianist, and a friend of Tom Jobim's since their childhood. According to both Ruy Castro and Helena Jobim, the two composed together, both sitting at the piano; they probably collaborated on both music and lyrics. It would not be accurate to say that one was the composer, the other the lyricist.
Opening stanzas, original:
Se você disser que eu desafino, amor
Saiba que isto em mim provoca imensa dor
Só privilegiados têm ouvido igual ao seu
Eu possuo apenas o que Deus me deu
Se você insiste em classificar
Meu comportamento de anti-musical
Eu mesmo mentindo devo argumentar
Que isto é Bossa Nova, que isto é muito natural
O que você não sabe, nem sequer pressente
É que os desafinados também têm um coração
Fotografei você na minha Roleiflex
Revelou-se a sua enorme ingratidão
Literal translation (Google):
If you say that I'm out of tune, my love
Know that this causes me immense pain
Only the privileged have hearing like yours
I only have what God gave me
If you insist on classifying
My behavior as anti-musical
I, even lying, must argue
That this is Bossa Nova, that this is very natural
What you don't know, or even sense
Is that out of tune people also have a heart
I photographed you on my Roleiflex
Your enormous ingratitude was revealed
Love is like a never ending melody,
Poets have compared it to a symphony,
A symphony conducted by the lighting of the moon,
But our song of love is slightly out of tune
Once your kisses raised me to a fever pitch,
Now the orchestration doesn't seem so rich,
Seems to me you've changed the tune we used to sing,
Like the bossa nova love should swing
Lyrics by Gene Lees:
(intro)
When I try to sing you say I'm off key
Why can't you see how much this hurts me
With your perfect beauty and your perfect pitch
You're a perfect terror
When I come around must you always put me down
(first stanzas)
If you say my singing is off key my love
You will hurt my feelings don't you see my love
I wish I had an ear like yours
A voice that would behave
But all I have is feelings and the voice God gave
You insist my music goes against the rules
But rules were never meant for lovesick fools
I wrote this little song for you but you don't care
Its a crooked song oh but all my love is there
The thing that you would see if you would play your part
Is even if I'm out of tune I have a gentle heart
And now all I have developed is a complex
Agua de Beber
(Portuguese by Vinicius, English by Gimbel)
This song has a somewhat mystical feeling to me. The melody is minor-key, with blues elements. It reminds me of capoeira songs.
Original:
Literal translation (Google)
I wanted to love, but I was afraid
And I wanted to save my heart
But love knows a secret
Fear can kill your heart
Drinking water, drinking water, my friend
Drinking water, drinking water, my friend
I never did anything so right
I entered the school of forgiveness
My house is always open
I opened all the doors of my heart
Lyrics by Norman Gimbel:
Your love is rain, my heart the flower
I need your love or I will die
My very life is in your power
Will I wither and fade or bloom to the sky?
[Chorus]
Água de beber
Give the flower water to drink
Água de beber
Give the flower water to drink
One Note Samba
(Portuguese by Newton Mendonca, English by Jon Hendricks)
From Helena Jobim's book:
At that time “Off Key” and “One-Note Samba” had already become hits in the United States. Bossa nova had come of age. Millions of records were sold and often played on radio stations in new renditions released by jazz stars. Some of the recordings were not well done at all, with little respect for the musical structure or lyrics of the Brazilian originals. Those aspects of the “fever” bothered and preoccupied Tom Jobim. Several of those English versions had nothing to do with their Portuguese counterparts. For that reason Tom himself sought after the best translation possible for his compositions. That was the case with “One-Note Samba.” He carried the lyrics in his pocket and kept asking people if the translation was good. Changes were made often when Tom came across an acquaintance who knew English better than he did.
This quote leads me to think that perhaps Jobim provided a lot more input on this song than on Hendricks' other efforts. The English version is quite close to the original in this case.
Opening stanzas, original:
Eis aqui este sambinha
Feito numa nota só
Outras notas vão entrar
Mas a base é uma só
Esta outra é consequência
Do que acabo de dizer
Como eu sou a consequência
Inevitável de você
Quanta gente existe por aí
Que fala tanto
E não diz nada
Ou quase nada
Já me utilizei de toda a escala
E no final não sobrou nada
Não deu em nada
Literal translation (Google)
Here is this little samba
Made over just one note
Other notes will come in
But the base is just one
This other one is a consequence
Of what I just said
As I am the inevitable consequence
of you
How many people are there out there
Who talk so much
And say nothing
Or almost nothing
I've already used the entire scale
And in the end there was nothing left
It came to nothing
Lyrics by Jon Hendricks:
This is just a little samba
Built upon a single note
Other notes are bound to follow
But the root is still that note
Now this new one is the consequence
Of the one we've just been through
As I'm bound to be the unavoidable
Consequence of you
There's so many people who can
Talk and talk and talk
And just say nothing
Or nearly nothing
I have used up all the scale I know
And at the end I've come to nothing
Or nearly nothing etc.
Here's a video of a 1986 concert in Japan with Jobim's "Banda Nova," his last band, which performed from 1984 to 1993. Some songs are performed in Portuguese, some in English, some in both languages. The English versions that Jobim chose to use are Desafinado (Lees' version), Corcovado (Gimbel), Dindi (Gilbert), Waters of March (Jobim), and Girl from Ipanema (Gimbel). He must have found those versions acceptable enough. In any case, he knew what the audiences expected to hear. He leans more on the Portuguese lyrics, and keeps it all fresh with updated arrangements.
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Here's the Ruy Castro interview mentioned above. A discussion about Jon Hendricks, Norman Gimbel, and Ray Gilbert begins at about 54:00. It's in Portuguese, but you can get auto-translate captions by going to settings/subtitles/cc/english. The English captions are crude, but you can figure out what Castro is saying. He refers to Ray Gilbert as "a guy who stole bossa nova." Thanks to Guto for pointing me at this video, as well as for help with the “literal” translations!
