Luar do sertão: how I miss my homeland’s moonlight
“(…) it looks like a silvery sun, silvering the loneliness” — Catulo da Paixão Cearense and João Pernambuco
Recorded the first time by Eduardo das Neves over a century ago, in 1914, Luar do sertão (Backlands’ moonlight) is a known toada (usually a song with a simple melody and short lyrics). It speaks very highly about the backland’s beauty, especially its moonlight. Composed by Catulo da Paixão Cearense and João Pernambuco, it became widely known in Brazil due to the versions of famous names such as Luiz Gonzaga, Milton Nascimento, Maria Bethânia, Elba Ramalho and others. In the end, some versions will be available.
The poetic speaker’s nostalgia is already expressed at the song’s beginning through its chorus: “there is no moonlight like backland’s one”. Lamenting over the dark moonlight of the city in which he is at the moment, he misses his homeland’s one, whose light’s intensity is powerful enough to turn into white the dry leaves that rest on the ground.
The poetic speaker continues saying that back home, whenever the moon rises behind the woods, it appears to be a silvery sun, giving silver tones to his loneliness. Inspired by the moonlight, he sits down with a guitar and deep inside his heart a song is born. Involved with moment’s beauty, he notes an exquisite small river among the woods, a true water mirror that “steals” the brightness of the stars.
In the end, the speaker finishes the song by saying he would like to die in the hill, his home. “Embraced to his land” he would sleep forever. He would also like to be buried there, where every afternoon a little tinamou — a common bird in Central and South Amerika –, missing his guitar chords, would cry its widowhood.
In the following videos you can see Elba Ramalho and Maria Bethânia performing the song. Both versions are available on Spotify too, here and here. Another beautiful version, from Milton Nascimento’s album Anos 2000, in posthumous duet with Luiz Gonzaga, is available here.
Para ler a versão em português, clique aqui.
