Eu Sou Neguinha? [English translation]

I was leaning against my guitar

on the white square, cardboard video

I was an enigma, a question mark

look what a thing, a matter of fact thing, good, good, good, good

I was there by coincidence, it wasn't anything

back woman's ass, construction worker's arms

I was in Madureira, I was in Bahia in Beaubourg,

in Bronx, in Brás and I and I and I asking myself

I am black woman?

It was a message

I read a message

it seemed silly but it was not

I did not decipher, I couldn't

but that went and I, went, and I went, and I went, and I went

I asked myself: it was a hippie gesture

a strange drawing man working, stop, wrong lane

it was a joy, it was a hope

it was dance and dance or not, or not, or not

I was asking: am I back woman?

I was praying there completely

a believer, a lens, it was a vision

totally third sex

totally third world

third millennium, naked flesh, naked, naked, naked, naked

It was so funny, it was a trio elétrico, it was fantasy

samba school on television

cross at the end of the tunnel, dead end and I was the way out, melody, noon, day, day

it's what I said: am I black woman?

But I saw other things: I saw the strong man

and the soft woman in the darkness

I saw what is visible, I saw what I didn't see

and what poetry and prophecy don't see

but see, see, see, see

It's what it looked like

that things talk

surprising things make fatal mistakes

find a solution and that the same sign that I try to read and be

is just a possible and impossible in me,

in a thousand, in a thousand, and the question came: am I black woman?

• Artist:Caetano Veloso
• Album:Caetano (1987)