Cidadão [English translation]

Can you see that building over there, sir?

I helped build it up

It was an excruciating time in my life.

I had to use four buses everyday

Two, in order to get there, two more, for the way round,

And now that it's done

the view of it gets me dizzy,

And then I see some figure come

And asks , with visible distrust,

"Is it that the building impresses you or ..."

your intentions here is to burgle??"

There's no consolation every Sunday,

I'm coming back home, hopeless

I'm tempted to drink and much to my boredom

I'm not even allowed to look

At the building I helped raise

Can you see that school over there, sir?

I also worked in there too

There, I worn myself out,

I prepared cement mixes, helped grout walls

And today my daughter comes to me, innocently, saying

"Dad I'm going to apply for that school",

And that's when I hear a figure speak

"Here barefoot poor children are not allowed in"

This is what hurts most,

"why on earth did I have to leave the North?", I said it to myself

"Drought was merciless at that place"

"But the modest product of my plantation"

"No one would ever forbid me to consume it"

Can you see that church over there, sir?

There where the priest celebrates mass

I am the one who had set in the bell and its clapper,

My hands got awfully calloused

I also worked in there too.

However, this time, it has been worth to

There, they arrange bazaars, novenas

And the priest lets me in

There, Jesus told me: "my man, don't be silly"

"Don't let the fear put you down"

"I'm the one who created the Earth, "

"Filled rivers, conceived hills and so on"

"Nothing was left out"

"Now men have wings, and believe it or not"

"At most homes, they don't let me in too"

• Artist:Zé Ramalho