“Cálice” is a song written by Brazilian pop artists Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil in 1973 and released in 1978 on the album Chico Buarque. The 1978 recording also features vocals from fellow Brazilian pop artist Milton Nascimiento. The lyrics of the song criticize the Brazilian government for censorship that silenced many artists at the time. The lyrics, however, used wordplay to disguise that meaning from said censors, avoiding censorship. The uses the word “cálice” meaning chalice which sounds like “calese” meaning be quiet. This song displays how Brazilian pop artists like Chico Buarque were able to avoid government censorship despite their lyrics which criticized it.
“Cálice” is another famous example of Brazilian songwriters avoiding censorship through clever wordplay. Unlike the other famous Buraque songs like “Construção”, it also centers around an action from the government itself rather than broader social forces like capitalism. Not just any action, but the censorship that forced this song to rely so heavily on coded language to convey its message. It’s yet another microcosm of Brazilian songwriting avoiding censorship, this time with a more direct connection to the government censoring it.
Lyrics (English Translation):
Father, move this chalice away from me (“cálice” sounds the same as “cale-se” which means “be quiet, shut up”)
Father, move this chalice away from me
Father, move this chalice away from me
Of red wine of blood
How to drink of this bitter beverage
Swallow the pain, swallow the toil
Even silent the night, there’s the chest
Silence in the city is not heard
What’s worth to me to be the son of the saint
It’d be better to be the son of the other
Other reality less dead
So many lies, so much brute strength
How difficult it is to wake up silent
If in the dead of the night I’m screwed
I want to cast an inhuman scream
Which is a way to be heard
All this silence baffles me
Baffled, I remain attentive
In the bleachers to at any moment
See emerge the monster of the lagoon
Very fat, the pig no longer walks
Very used, the knife no longer cuts
How hard it is, father, to open the door
This word trapped in my throat
This homeric inebriation in the world
What good it is to have good will
Even silent the chest, there’s the head
Of the drunken downtown
Maybe the world’s not small
Neither is life a consumated fact
I want to invent my own sin
I want to die of my own poison
I want to completely lose your head
My head lose your judgement
I want to smell the smoke of diesel oil
Get drunk until someone
forgets me
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/calice-chalice.html
Buarque, Chico. “Cálice”. Philips, 1978, Accessed November 16, 2022.