William Eggleston + Caetano Veloso

(from “The Democratic Forest”)
© William Eggleston

[audio:http://www.shanelavalette.com/blog/audio/03_Cuccuruccu_Paloma.mp3]

Cucurrucucú Paloma
by Caetano Veloso (originally by Tomás Méndez)

They say that at night he did nothing but cry.
They that he didn’t eat and did nothing but drink.
They swear that heaven itself shuddered when it heard his cry,
How he suffered for her, calling out to her even as he died.

“Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay,” he sang.
“Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay,” he wept.
“Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay,” he sang.
As he died of mortal passion.

That a sad dove early in the morning comes to sing to him,
To the small house with its little doors open wide.
They swear that the dove is none other than his soul,
That he however is still waiting for her to come back, she, the wretched.

Cucurrucucú, dove,
Cucurrucucú, don’t cry.
The stones never cry, dove,
What do they know of love?

Cucurrucucú, cucurrucucú,
Cucurrucucú, don’t cry any more.