“what shall I do when lying down,” that is a beautiful and profoundly sad question….
Dear Jessica:
This was your brief, but rather crucial comment on the poem / lyrics of this ‘fado’. Admirable is also that you, not knowing the Portuguese language, got the gist of the whole idea… Bright woman! That’s why I decided to translate the song text to you. (Hope it works! A lot gets lost in the translation process and Amália had a very peculiar way of writing…)
Fear
“Who sleeps at night with me ?
It’s my secret, It’s my secret!
But if you insist, I tell you .
Fear lives with me,
but only fear, but only fear.
And soon enough ’cause it rocks me
in a see-saw of loneliness
it is with silence that it speaks,
with the voice of furniture that cracks
and disturbs our mind /reason
“What shall I do when lying down,
starring at the empty space,
screams on the starred space
that is sleeping by my side,
Lazarus and cold?”
Screaming? Who can save me
from what is inside myself?
I even would like to kill me.
But I know it will be waiting for me
near the bridge of the end.”
Amália Rodrigues
Amália- 1920-1999
