Paulo Coelho

Stories & Reflections

Nunca mais/ Never more

Author: Paulo Coelho


The Brazilian military right wing dictatorship lasted from 1964 to 1984. Today, as we see in the Arab Spring, many people died and I myself was arrested three times (and tortured in one of the arrests), but in the end freedom prevailed.
Don’t lose your hope!
Below are the lyrics in English I found on the web

Father, move this chalice away from me (“cálice” sounds the same as “cale-se” which means “be quiet, shut up”)

Father, move this chalice away from me
Father, move this chalice away from me
Of red wine of blood

How to drink of this bitter beverage
Swallow the pain, swallow the toil
Even silent the night, there’s the chest
Silence in the city is not heard
What’s worth to me to be the son of the saint
It’d be better to be the son of the other
Other reality less dead
So many lies, so much brute strength

How difficult it is to wake up silent
If in the dead of the night I’m screwed
I want to cast an inhuman scream
Which is a way to be heard
All this silence baffles me
Baffled, I remain attentive
In the bleachers to at any moment
See emerge the monster of the lagoon

Very fat, the pig no longer walks
Very used, the knife no longer cuts
How hard it is, father, to open the door
This word trapped in my throat
This homeric inebriation in the world
What good it is to have good will
Even silent the chest, there’s the head
Of the drunken downtown

Maybe the world’s not small
Neither is life a consumated fact
I want to invent my own sin
I want to die of my own poison
I want to completely lose your head
My head lose your judgement
I want to smell the smoke of diesel oil
Get drunk until someone
forgets me

Portuguese → English translation by isaprospero

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