Peleja de Riachão Com o Diabo

Riachão's Struggle with the Devil

Riachão was singing
In the city of Assu
When a black man appeared
Of the vulture species
He had a soil shirt
Raw leather pants

Thick and turned lips
Like the sole of a sandal
One eye very red
The other quite yellow
This man called Riachão
To sing a hammer

Riachão replied
I don't sing with unknown black men!
Because he could be a slave
And be a runaway here
That's giving tail to a tinamou
And only a swollen black man enters

I am free as the wind
My lineage is noble
With many more illustrious
Than the Sun covers in the world
I was born in greatness
I didn't come from the poor race

You deny because you want
You are too well known
Tell me if you are a fugitive
Tell me how long ago?
If you are not a captive
Works deny signs

Whether rich or slave
I want to sing a hammer
Tune your guitar!
Let's enter a duel
Just with my presence
You are turning yellow

I see a figure so small
That I can't even see
It seems that it doesn't need
To tune the guitar
Through the tree's branches
You see the fruits it bears

Riachão, these are phrases
From a very backward man
Because they are seen phenomena
That have occurred on earth
A tiny snake
Kills a giant ox

My stream in the drought
Gives unusual floods
In the water's current
Large animals descend
Boa constrictors, anacondas
And monstrous jaguars

The jaguar worships me
The serpent dies at my feet
When my wrath arrives
Only one power helps
I say to the river: Stop there
The water stops and doesn't flow

You are not Joshua
Who commanded the Sun to stop
This one stopped for three days
For the war to end
Not even Moses with his rod
Made the sea water dry

I do whatever I want
My strength is limitless
The deeds done by me
I see no man who cites them
I determine one thing
There is no force that prevents

Solomon also did
What he wanted to do
Through magic and chemistry
He wanted to be born again
Instead of birth
He managed to die

Solomon facilitated
Confident in science
He directed everything well
But lacked patience
If it weren't for that mistake
He would have another existence

I need to know
Where is your birthplace
Because I don't know if you
Have a legal birth
From which nation do you come
If you behave well or badly

You come to interrogate me
I also interrogate you
Tell me where you are going
And where you come from
If you are single or married
What work do you have?

I have no superior
I am a child of freedom
And I don't tell my life
Because there is no need
I am not a fugitive
Nor are you an authority

I need to warn you
Give you an observation
Treat me very gently
Sing very attentively
Make sure you don't neglect
And put your foot in your hand

I have been singing for a long time
I am very skilled
I know some subjects
I am a little advanced
I studied for four years
I consider myself literate

I am a teacher of subjects
That a wise man does not know
The law I dictate in the world
The king himself obeys
My deeds are known
My fame spreads and grows

You say you have knowledge
Give me an explanation
If the earth moves
Whose rotation is it?
Why in 12 hours
Is there this transformation?

The Sun is not the one that moves
It is fixed in its place
The earth is on axes
The axes make it rotate
Which by this rotation
Causes the sunlight to fail

Describe the great mystery
That the earth has among us
What is rain made of?
In what state does it come?
Is it created nearby
Or somewhere beyond?

Water in liquid state
By means of lowering
That is in temperature
And by cooling
This water is condensed
Helped by the wind

The atmospheric current
From a high mountain
That helps the temperature
Forms condensed clouds
From the wind moving the clouds
Rain is formed from that

That this rain later
Soaks all the earth
Through evaporation
It returns to space
Reproducing the process
That I just explained to you

Do you know this Brazilian country well?

Oh, replied the black man
I know the foreigner
From the smallest stream
To the largest river
For example: The Amazon
Which borders with Pará
Pará with Maranhão
Piauí with Ceará
And so on with others
If anyone doubts, go there

Anyone from here
Intending to travel
To Rio de Janeiro
And not wanting to go by sea
I'll show you the way
He goes without embarrassment

How does this trip work?
Where do you find the way?
Place of a single abode
Without another neighbor
So much that in many places
No man walks alone

Anyone can leave
From Assu to Mossoró
Wanting to be able to pass from Caicó
Go up the left bank
Of the Seridó River

Riachão thought to himself
This black man is a scoundrel
He came out of hell
Sent by the demon
And to deceive me he came
Transformed into a black man

The black man said: My friend
Don't be suspicious
I guarantee you
You didn't hear me sing well
At the height I sing
No one else can reach

Go as high as you want
(Riachão replied)
Go through all the books
That you learned
I don't know this being
Who sings more than me

You will know
The weight of a singer
When you see me again
Treat me as a teacher
Render me obedience
You will know my worth

You tell me your name
I want to know you
So only then will I give
The value you deserve
In everything you say
I still can't believe

Knowing who I am
Maybe you will be amazed
Superior to you
Many have been amazed with me
The great men of your land
I have subdued

I have been singing for eighteen years
And playing the guitar for twenty
I always find a singer
Who only has fame and talk
When he sings at noon
He falls at my feet, rolls on the ground

I have been singing for many years
I don't go to every function
I pull the tip of a bull
I break the fury of a lion
I found this tough
That has action for me

But from now on
You have to find
The superior force
That forces you to be silent
Because I put a siege
Who goes can't come back

Manoel, you are a child
You only have nonsense
See that speech is breath
But to act is courage
I swear that from now on
You won't boast

My father called Antonio
His nickname was river
From a flood he gave
He covered the entire lowland
He dug in winter
Filled in summer

I knew your father very well
Who lived from fishing
Your mother was so poor
That she lived from a loom
Your godfather took you
And took you to raise

Where did you live
That my grandfather knew?
That I don't even remember
The time he died
And you are suffering
Much younger than me

I know the day and the hour
That your great-grandfather was born
He was called Ana Mendes
The midwife who took him
I knew the friar very well
And saw when he baptized him

Take off your mask
Tell the story right
The way you tell it
I am not satisfied
How do you see an object
Before that being made?

Your great-grandfather was called
Apolinário canção
He was the son of a blacksmith
They called him hawk
Uai great-grandmother, lourença
Daughter of amaro assunção

But how old are you?
That makes me admire
You knew my great-grandfather
I can't believe it
So in these conditions
It makes me suspicious

Your great-grandfather and grandfather
Were known to me
Your father, your mother, and you
Before being born
They were already in my note
To be protected

What protection do you have
To protect someone?
Your person and clothes
Show what you have
Your color and appearance
Clarify very well

I protect you so much
That I defended you from dying
Do you remember the jaguar
That once wanted to eat you?
That a dog appeared
And made the jaguar run

I remember perfectly
When the jaguar ambushed me
That already marking the jump
That a dog arrived
The jaguar ran away in fear
I don't know who saved me

Because it was this servant of yours
Who saw the jaguar ambush you
I called my dog
To save you from the jaguar
Do you remember when you
Heard the rooster crow?

I remember all of this
Because that's how it happened
But how old was I
When this happened?
I was so little
That my father took care

You were nine years old
You went to hunt a calf
You entertained yourself with some flowers
That were there on the hill
The jaguar was waiting for you
To release the pounce

Riachão thought to himself
Where did this being come from
Who knows my whole life
Perfectly?
This will be the devil
Who is impersonating people?

You ask like this
Where do I come from?
I come from where thought doesn't go
Like yours
I came out of the ideal
First that appeared

Now I just believed
That you are the enemy
You turned into a man
To come sing with me
But I believe in God
I can't be in danger

I haven't threatened you yet
Nor do I intend to threaten you
I am ready to defend you
If anyone wants to attack you
In my humble person
There is a small vassal

I don't want to know about you
Because you are the traitor
You disobeyed God
He being the creator
You betrayed him
Even more to a sinner

Riachão, do you love God
Being badly rewarded
God made Paul a monarch
Peter a simple soldier
He made one with so much health
The other blind and crippled

If God made Paul a king
Because Paul deserved it
If he made Peter a soldier
It was what Peter deserved
If it wasn't necessary
The great God wouldn't do it

Your neighbor and relative
Got rich without working
Your father worked so hard
And could never get rich
He didn't lie down one night
Without praying

My father died in poverty
He was faithful to his lord
He executed every order
Given by the creator
And was one of the sheep
That gave the shepherd more pleasure

Oh there! Said the black man
You are a hopeless case
I with all patience
I am teaching you right
You see you are wrong
You pretend not to see the defect

Man is very happy
Who consoles himself with everything
I can die in poverty
You find me begging
God gives me to pass
Science and this guitar

The black man looked at Riachão
With the eyes of a damned dog
Riachão shouted: Jesus
Man God sacramented
Help me Virgin Mary
The mother of the incarnate Word

The black man let out a scream
There he disappeared
From a sulfur stench
The whole house was filled
The dogs howled in the street
The ground shook

Riachão was pensive
With an unknown singer
Who, when he met one
Immediately made sense
His first verse
Was offered to God