Contramão [English translation]

There's another side to the damage that's done

When what's sold as perfect

Is bought

Idolized by blindfolded eyes

Neither salted nor leavened

On the outside, a beautiful hourglass1

On the inside, moldy bread

You come in thinking you'll help put

All these things in the right place

You insist in believing

That you're playing the game

But when you take a step back

It's the game that's playing you

Try to hang around without any judgment

To walk down the middle of a snake, you'll end up producing venom

The game is treacherous, it confused my beliefs

I was no longer sure if I was part of the cure or the disease

Where are you?

If the farce is to be so perfect

I want all of me portrayed

The other way around

I refuse this charity and will wait

The world keeps turning and passing by here

Turn, turn, turn

People generally admire

Those who don't conspire and go nuts

Trying to knock us down a peg

Fury, fury, fury

Those with a shot take it

But if they miss their mark, they retreat

Or prepare for their reckoning

Not that I find myself to be one, I don't

But I won't be no pushover

I ain't yielding no space to any macho wanting to define me

I write my lines and proclaim them

To some it may seem bizarre

But I'm in my element and at ease

The world keeps turning and passing by here

Concessions and choices made to survive

It might not look it

But life here, my friend, has often proven to be tough

Times when only rats have known prosperity

And if you shine a few times, it obscures your view

You fall into the trap that this is what it means to be an artist

You see the faintest glimmer, and you think it's gold

But as Raul2 once said, it's fool's gold

Where are you?

If the farce is to be so perfect

I want all of me portrayed

The other way around

I refuse this charity and will wait

The world keeps turning and passing by here

And i'm not even from here

I'm from all the ground

That embraces skin and soul

Lonely sailor

Cultural retreaters of the drought from back there

Only laugh at war those who have never been there

Laugh's better than one that teaches fire how to burn

Only laughs at war those who have never been there

Laugh's better than one that teaches fire how to burn

I don't know how to deal with restriction

This subjugation business breaks my momentum

Get off of me, don't fuck with me

My salvation is botanical, no person can save me

It's my nature to walk the tightrope

But this wire is too wobbly

I macheted open the path, flesh, bone and heart

Mother Stella passed on her vision

And told me: "my girl, listed to your oyá3"

Where are you?

If the farce is to be so perfect

I want all of me portrayed

The other way around

I refuse this charity and will wait

The world keeps turning and passing by here

Where are you?

If the farce is to be so perfect

I want all of me portrayed

The other way around

I refuse this charity and will wait

The world keeps turning and passing by here

1. literally viola2. Seixas, singer-songwriter3. deity associated with wind, storms, death, rebirth