Um homem chamado Alfredo [English translation]

My next door neighbor

Killed himself out of loneliness

He turned on the gas, the poor man

The last gas on the cylinder

Because nobody wanted him

Nobody gave him attention

Because nobody more opened

Their heart's doors to him

He took with himself his parrot

And a pet cat

There's so many lonely people

That we barely even know

People without a chance for love

People without a hand to hold

People that only need a gaze

Almost nothing

People with their eyes on the ground

Always saying sorry

People that we barely see

Because they're almost nothing

I always greeted him

Because he looked like a good person

The man behind the glasses

As Drummond would say1

On an old wrapping paper

He left his note

Saying that he was killing himself

Because he was tired of living

Below it was signed Alfredo

Whose surname nobody knows2

1. Reference to the famous poem "Poema das Sete Faces" ('Seven-faced poem') by Brazilian modernist poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade2. This is a tricky line. The literal translation would be "But nobody knows from what." In Portuguese naming customs it's not uncommon that a surname has the preposition "de", which means "from" or "of", or a contraction of it, for example "da Silva" or "dos Santos". Since nobody was close to Alfredo, nobody knows "from what" he might be, since nobody knew his full name.

• Artist:Toquinho