Foi Deus [English translation]

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!