I don't know... Nobody knows
Why I sing the fado
In this aggrieved tone
Full of pain and tears!
And, in this torment,
All of the suffering...
I feel that my soul
Becomes calm deep within
The stanzas that I sing...
[Chorus:]
It was God
Who gave a voice to these eyes,
Lent to roses their perfume,
Gave gold to the sun
And silver to moonlight!
It was God
Who placed, in my breast,
A rosary of sorrows
The beads of which I keep counting
As I weep while singing!
And He placed the stars in the sky
And created the boundless space,
Covered the swallows in mourning...
Ah! And gave this voice to me!
If I sing... I don't know what I'm singing!
Blend of fortune,
Melancholy and tenderness
And, maybe, love!
Yet I know that, while singing,
I feel the same as when
One is beset with woe
And tears, down our faces,
Make us better in the end...
[Chorus:]
It was God
Who gave its voice to the wind,
Filled the firmament with light
And gave their blueness
To the waves of the sea!
It was God
Who placed, in my breast,
A rosary of sorrows
The beads of which I keep counting
As I weep while singing!
He turned the nightingale into a poet,
Placed the rosemary in the fields,
Filled the Spring with flowers...
Ah! And gave this voice to me!
He filled the Spring with flowers...
Ah! And gave this voice to me!