1Make the night your confidante
Night keeps always silent
Listens to what people say
And never repeats it again
Your eyes are like baby sparrows
Which cannot fly yet
Watch out that the brats of the neighborhood
Don't get to catch them
Who, seeing your eyes,
So sweet on your face,
Wouldn't be hungry of them and eat them
like two cores of lettuce 2
The fado is always so enchanting
It is different at every hour
Ah, sigh, guitar, cry
Every hour does a different lament become.
1. 'Alfacinha', lettucer, is a nickname given to Lisbon natives, because of their fondness for lettuce 2. The word play cannot be translated properly: lettuce cores are called 'olhos', eyes, in Portuguese