Francisco Buarque de Hollanda, better know as Chico Buarque, is a Brazilian… Read Full Bio ↴Francisco Buarque de Hollanda, better know as Chico Buarque, is a Brazilian singer-songwriter, guitarist, composer, playwright, writer and poet. He is best known for his music, which often includes social, economic and cultural reflections on Brazil.

The firstborn son of Sérgio Buarque de Hollanda, Buarque lived at several locations throughout his childhood, though mostly in Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Rome. He wrote and studied literature as a child and found music through the bossa nova compositions of Tom Jobim and João Gilberto. He performed as a singer and guitarist in the 1960s as well as writing a play that was deemed dangerous by the Brazilian military dictatorship of the time. Buarque, along with several Tropicalist and MPB musicians, was threatened by the Brazilian military government and eventually left Brazil for Italy in 1969. However, he came back to Brazil in 1970, and continued to record, perform, and write, though much of his material was suppressed by government censors. He released several more albums in the 1980s and published three novels in the 1990s and 2000s.

In 2019, Buarque was awarded the Camões Prize, the most important prize for literature in the Portuguese language.

Morro Dois Irmãos
Chico Buarque Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Dois irmãos quando vai alta a madrugada
E a teus pés vão se encostar os instrumentos
Aprendi a respeitar tua prumada
E desconfiar do teu silêncio

Penso ouvir a pulsação atravessada
Do que foi e o que será noutra existência
É assim como se a rocha dilatada

Fosse uma concentração de tempos

É assim como se o ritmo do nada
Fosse sim, todos os ritmos por dentro

Ou então, como uma música parada
Sobre uma montanha em movimento

Overall Meaning

In the song "Morro Dois Irmãos" by Chico Buarque, the lyrics speak about two brothers who come together in the early morning hours with their instruments at the feet of the singer. The singer has learned to respect the brothers' expertise and distrust their silence. As the singer listens, he hears the rhythm of time passing, both what has been and what will be in some other existence. The rock formations around them become a concentration of time, expanding with an underlying pulse. The rhythm of nothingness contains all rhythms that are within them, like an inert piece of music sitting atop a moving mountain.

The song speaks to the interconnectedness of all things, the idea that time is not linear but circular, and that everything we do has an impact on the past, present, and future. The rock formations represent the constant presence of time, while the brothers and their instruments represent the creative energy that breathes life into that time. By juxtaposing the seemingly static rock formations and the seemingly ceaseless rhythm of nothingness, the lyrics remind us that everything is in constant motion and that the rhythm of life is always present, even if we cannot always hear it.

Line by Line Meaning

Dois irmãos quando vai alta a madrugada
Two brothers when the early morning comes

E a teus pés vão se encostar os instrumentos
And at your feet the instruments will rest

Aprendi a respeitar tua prumada
I learned to respect your drop

E desconfiar do teu silêncio
And to distrust your silence

Penso ouvir a pulsação atravessada
I think I hear the crossed pulse

Do que foi e o que será noutra existência
From what was and what will be in another existence

É assim como se a rocha dilatada
It's like the dilated rock

Fosse uma concentração de tempos
Is a concentration of times

É assim como se o ritmo do nada
It's like the rhythm of nothing

Fosse sim, todos os ritmos por dentro
Is yes, all the rhythms within

Ou então, como uma música parada
Or else, like a stopped music