Dear reader, mainly you who not understanding portuguese, I feel sorry for you 🙁 hahahah
My point here is to analyze the english translation for Insensatez, by Vinicius and Tom. Actually is very good. I believe Norman Gimbel made a great work translating How insensitive.
But something was left behind… the actual meaning of Insensatez. To be insensitive is to act without empathy, without caring about other’s feelings… to be “insensato” is different… you know what you are doing, you are conscious about it, the impact of it… regret… fragility… but you still act like a foolish, can you understand me, dear reader?
I would love that Insensatez had a perfect translation for English, but as Saudade… I believe there never have words enough to explain this as the brazilian portuguese does.
Other point is that the translation change the poetic voice of this song. In portuguese, who talks is the broken one… in english, the insensitive one. Do you notice how much this change the song meaning? This is not only a translation, it changes the song’s psychological subject.
In portuguese, the song feels like an accusation against your foolish lover. In english, the song feels like a confession. The person is suffering because his own insensitive.
These are close felling, but not identical.
For me, the both are great and iconic songs, but it is different. It is two different songs, it is not only a translation, you know? Isn’t the same stuff.
“How much insensitive I must have seemed when she told me that she loved me” have a HUGE difference for “a insensatez que você fez, coração mais sem cuidado” [the foolishness that you did, heart more careless]. Do you got it? Do you got my point?
But that’s for me is what made the translation excellent. Gimbel didn’t try to translate each word. He created an english lyric that works for the music and poetry. However, doing it, he also rebuild the song.
A person saying “I knew. My heart knew. But I made it anyway” is different from “look what you made with me, you foolish heart”.
Insensatez, in portuguese, carries something like lack of judgement, recklessness, foolishness, acting in an inconsequential way. Not necessarily lack of empathy.
Yes, Gimbel. You had changed the music meaning. But, fortunately, you gave us a second great music. How lucky we are!