Ilu Ayê (Terra da vida)
Portela 1972
Ilu Ayê, Ilu Ayê, Odara!
!
!
!
Negro cantava na nação nagô! !
!
Depois chorou lamentos de senzala!
!
Tão longe estava de sua Ilu Ayê! !
Tempo passou e no terreirão da casa grande
Negro diz tudo que pode dizer! !
É samba, é batuque, é reza
É dança, é ladainha
Negro joga capoeira
E faz louvação à rainha
Hoje, negro é terra
Negro é vida
Na mutação do tempo
Desfilando na avenida
Negro é sensacional
É toda festa do povo
É dono do carnaval
––––––––––––––––––
Ilu Ayê 1 ( Land of life or of the living)
Portela 1972
Ilu Ayê, Ilu Ayê, Odara
The black man used to sing in the Nagô nation
Later he wailed laments of senzala2
He was so far from his Ilu Ayê
Time passed and in the lands of the casa grande
The black man said all that could be said
1
Lord of life on earth, Babalú-Ayé is the name of the spirit of the Earth. He is associated with illness and
infectious disease but also with the healing of those ailments. Ilu ayê and odara are Nagô terms, almost
an invocation, it is the longing of a distant Africa, “Land of the living”, and the people who were brought
over to Brazil were called odara, “good people”. The men and women sold as slaves used to sing songs
of lament which evoked their distant land.
2
Senzalas were collective rooms where all the slaves slept. They were constructed in the depths of the
slave-owner’s house.
It is samba, it is batuque 3, it is reza4
It is dance, it is ladainha5
The black man plays capoeira
And does louvação6 to the queen
Today, the black man is the land
The black man is life
In the mutation of time
Parading in the avenue
The black man is sensational
He is the festivity of the people
He is the master of carnaval
!
!
3
!
-Translation by Liliana Gallegos 2012.
Type of dance from Cape Verde.
4
Literally prayer. Part of capoeira where both kneel down in silence while everyone else sings, so it
seems they are praying.
5
6
A litany. It is a solo sung at the beginning of a capoeira roda.
Literally praise. Louvacão is the call and response part of the roda in capoeira. It is to invoke and give
thanks.