Fado Alfacinha [English translation]

1Make the night your confidante

Night keeps always silent

Listens to what people say

And never repeats it again

Your eyes are like baby sparrows

Which cannot fly yet

Watch out that the brats of the neighborhood

Don't get to catch them

Who, seeing your eyes,

So sweet on your face,

Wouldn't be hungry of them and eat them

like two cores of lettuce 2

The fado is always so enchanting

It is different at every hour

Ah, sigh, guitar, cry

Every hour does a different lament become.

1. 'Alfacinha', lettucer, is a nickname given to Lisbon natives, because of their fondness for lettuce 2. The word play cannot be translated properly: lettuce cores are called 'olhos', eyes, in Portuguese

• Artist:Amália Rodrigues