Autores Alex do Cavaco e Serginho do Porto
Translation: Eduardo Martino

Brasil ô-ô, berço da diversidade

Brazil, cradle of diversity

Sua cultura a Paraíso vem mostrar

Its culture Paraiso is going to show

Vai encantar essa cidade

(Paraiso) is going to delight this city

Com a nação Iorubá

with the Yoruba Nation (2)

Vinda em navios negreiros

which came in slave-trader ships

Banzeiros, trouxeram o ritual de fé

The ritual of faith was brought by the “banzeiros” (3)

Resistindo ao cativeiro

resisting captivity (4)

Cultuaram os orixás do candomblé

(The African slaves) worshipped the gods of candomble (5)

Oxalá é natureza é vida é paz e amor

Oxala is nature, life, peace and love

Iluminado vem meu pai Ogum

(My father) Ogum brings light with him

Guerreiro das batalhas vencedor

Warrior, winner of battles

Êparrei Iansâ atotô Obaluaiê

Eparrei Iansa atoto Obaluaie

Tem misterio e magia no arco-iris de Oxumaré

There’s mystery and magic in Oxumare’s rainbow

bis

repeat

Oxossi rei da mata é caçador

Oxossi, king of the jungle, is a hunter

Oxum vaidosa se banha ao luar

Oxum, vain, washes herself under the moonlight

O rei da justiça é Xango kaô

The king of justice is Xango Kao;

Tem oferenda para saudar Iemanjá

There are offers to greet Iemanja (6)

Orunmilá agô, Ifá mandou

Orunmila Ago, Ifa sent

O mensageiro Exu, abrir caminhos

the messanger Exu open ways

Pelo mundo na fé de Olorum

across the world in the faith of Olorum

Irôco é o tempo

Iroco is the time

Ossanhe tem o segredo de curar

Ossanhe owns the healing secrets

Odé Logun Odé salve Ibeiji

Ode Logun Ode, save Ibeiji

Chegou Nanã para abençoar

Nana arrived to bless

refrão

Ao rufár do tambor

With the beating of the drum,

Amor eu peço axé (axé)

Dear, I ask for Axe (7)

Sou vermelho e branco e vou

My colours are red and white and I go around

No balanço da maré

Following the changing sea (8)

Notes

1) Orixa is a generic name for the gods of the candomble religion from Africa

2) Yoruba is the people-culture-language from around southwest Nigeria

3) and here there’s a very nice linguistic ambiguity: banzeiros could be the strong winds or the wobbling motion over the waves, which means that the ritual of faith were brought by the ships, the wind and the waves; but “banzo” is the moral nostalgia that the enslaved people commonly felt when they were taken away from their homelands in Africa, which suggests that the ritual of faith was actually brought by the nostalgic slaves

4) or fighting, opposing, enduring

5) from here onwards the text will be introducing the gods and their qualities

6) Iemanja is the queen of the sea, a well-known figure in Brazilian popular culture. Whoever has had the chance to spend a New Year celebration in any Brazilian beach will have seen people dressed in white offering flowers and candles to Iemanja

7) Axe is the holy power of the Yoruba gods, the energy of each being and each material thing

8) Like the ships and the African slaves inside them. So the narrator, who is describing the Yoruba culture, is identifying him/herself with the slaves by recognising that he/she is driven by the sea and wind. The narrator also includes him/herself within Paraiso’s School of Samba, which is here to delight the city with this interesting story. So a link is drawn between the Afro-Brazilian culture and Paraiso. And the carnival is the moment when it all explodes!