Caetano Veloso sings 'Tonada de Luna llena' (Simón Díaz)

From Brazil & Venezuela



TONADA DE LUNA LLENA (autor, Simón Díaz)

Yo ví de una garza mora
I saw a heron once

dándole combate a un río.
striking up a fight with a river

Así es como se enamora
thus is how my heart falls in love
tu corazón con el mío.
with your heart.

Yo ví de una garza mora
I saw a heron once

dándole combate a un río,
striking up a fight with a river

así es como se enamora x2
thus is how my heart falls in love
tu corazón con el mío.  x2
with your heart.

Luna, luna, luna, luna llena
full Moon

menguante.
waning Moon

Luna, luna, luna, luna llena

full Moon
menguante.
waning Moon

Anda muchacho a la casa, 

Go boy to the house
y me trae la carabina,
and bring me the carbine

pa' mata' ese gavilán    (para matar)

to kill that sparrowhawk
que no me deja gallina.

that's taking all my hens.

La luna me está mirando
The Moon is staring at me
yo no sé lo que me ve.
what does she want?

Yo tengo la ropa limpia
My clothes are clean

ayer tarde la lavé
I did my washing yesterday.

La luna me está mirando,

yo no sé lo que me ve.

Yo tengo la ropa limpia x 2

ayer tarde la lavé. x 2

Luna, luna, luna, luna llena

menguante.

Luna, luna, luna, luna llena

menguante.


this is a 'garza mora':

The Cocoi Heron (Ardea cocoi) is a species of heron in the Ardeidae family. It is common and widespread throughout most of South America including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

Simón Díaz was the composer of 'Tonada de Luna Llena'



THE MUSIC OF SIMON DIAZ
Tonadas, is a Venezuelan compilation album of 2003, made by Simón Díaz with the seal Latin World. In this album presents his famous tonadas. (musical genre of the Venezuelan plains). Simón Díaz died at 85 in Caracas on 19 February 2014.

Though he projected a folksy image, Mr. Díaz was a scholar of his country’s music, having studied for six years at a conservatory after arriving in Caracas from the countryside in 1949. Like Cecil Sharp in Britain or Alan Lomax in the United States, he roamed his country collecting and annotating folklore, with a special focus on tonadas, the work ballads of cowboys, fishermen and other manual laborers; and coplas, another popular folk music form.

“Sometimes people would ask me why I wanted to dedicate myself to music from the country,” Mr. Díaz said in a 2005 interview, “but that is where I am from, and that is the music I felt inside of me. It was always a part of who I am. I’m inspired by the people, the work, the land, by the raw materials and the truth of nature, by the simple things that were once important.” (read the whole article from the New York Times here)