Practice your Portuguese by listening to and translating songs from Portuguese to your native language. This song is called “Avião de Papel“, by Carolina Deslandes featuring Rui Veloso.
I’ve translated the song into English after the lyrics below. (the music video is not mine nor was it produced by me).
If you’re here from the 30-Day Free Portuguese Challenge for your daily goal, the task for today is to listen to the song a few times and try to follow along with the lyrics in Portuguese. At the end of the task, try to rate yourself and include the date. This is so you can later come back to this exercise and see how you have improved over time. Let’s jump in. (You don’t need to be a part of the challenge to do these suggested exercises 😉 )
Useful tools
Disclaimer: I’m not connected or affiliated with these links. More info here.
Tasks for the 30-Day Portuguese Challenge
- Beginners: Really actively listen to how the words are being pronounced. Before looking at the translation, underline the words you know and circle the ones you don’t. Write the words you don’t know into a list on your paper and save them for later. The main goal is to listen to the sounds of the language and be introduced to new vocabulary. If you’d like to take a step further, now look up words in the online dictionary and make notes if they are used in other contexts.
- Intermediates: After listening and looking at the lyrics – BUT NOT the translation yet – analyse the words more closely. Write down a summary of what you think the song is about. Then compare that to the translation. Then separate the words into different categories such as which ones are the verbs (actions), which ones are the nouns (names of things and people or animals) and which ones are the adjectives (descriptions). You can go a step further and indicate what tense the verbs are in. The main goal is to see how your comprehension is progressing and what you need to work more on.
- Advanced: After listening and looking at the Portuguese lyrics, your task is to translate the lyrics without any help. If you come across a word you’ve never seen, try an educated guess before looking it up in the dictionary. It doesn’t always have to make perfect sense. As I’m sure you know, sometimes artists will use a word or pronounce it in an uncommon way so it fits with the rhyme. Then compare it to the translation and see how you did. If you have the opportunity to go a little further, write a composition stating your opinion on the song. And that can be anything you like: the lyrics, the melody, the voice, the feelings, how you would change it if you didn’t like it, you name it. Try to include compound tenses and the subjunctive mood in your composition.
Avião de Papel – (paper plane)
Amor o mundo quebra-te os sonhos
Às vezes cai-te todo nos ombros
Eu levanto-o inteiro por ti
Eu viro o cavaleiro por ti
Amor o mundo deixa-te ao frio
Às vezes larga-te no vazio
Eu pinto de todas as cores por ti
Eu viro Leonardo Da Vinci por ti
Fiz-te um avião de papel
Daqueles das cartas de amor
Pra voarmos nele quando o mundo é cruel
E não há espaço que chegue pra dor
Fiz-te um avião de papel
Daqueles dos quantos queres
Pra voarmos daqui em lua de mel
Pra te levar pra onde quiseres
Amor o mundo tira-te o ar
Chega a proibir-te de dançar
Eu danço as músicas todas por ti
Eu viro bailarino por ti
Amor o mundo fez-te mulher
Mais cedo do que tinha de ser
Eu faço o tempo voltar por ti
Eu viro super-homem por ti
Fiz-te um avião de papel
Daqueles das cartas de amor
Pra voarmos nele quando o mundo é cruel
E não há espaço que chegue pra dor
Fiz-te um avião de papel
Daqueles dos quantos queres
Pra voarmos daqui em lua de mel
Pra te levar pra onde quiseres
Fiz-te um avião de papel (Pois fiz)
Daqueles das cartas de amor
Pra voarmos nele quando o mundo é cruel
E não há espaço que chegue pra dor
Fiz-te um avião de papel
Daqueles dos quantos queres
Pra voarmos daqui em lua de mel
Pra te levar onde quiseres
Pra te levar
Pra te levar
Onde quiseres
Onde quiseres
Translation
Love the world breaks your dreams
Sometimes it falls all on your shoulders
I lift it all up for you
I turn the knight for you
Love the world leaves you out in the cold
Sometimes it leaves you in the void
I paint in every colour for you
I’ll turn Leonardo Da Vinci for you
I made you a paper aeroplane
The kind from love letters
So we can fly in it when the world is cruel
And there’s not enough room for pain
I made you a paper aeroplane
The kind like paper fortune tellers*
So we can fly away on our honeymoon
To take you wherever you want
Love, the world takes your breath away
It even forbids you to dance
I’ll dance to all the songs for you
I turn into a dancer for you
Love, the world made you a woman
Sooner than it had to be
I turn back time for you
I’ll turn superman for you
I made you a paper aeroplane
The kind you see in love letters
So we can fly in it when the world is cruel
And there’s not enough room for pain
I made you a paper aeroplane
The kind you want
So we can fly away on our honeymoon
To take you anywhere you want to go
I made you a paper aeroplane (I did)
One of those love letter planes
So we can fly in it when the world is cruel
And there’s not enough room for pain
I made you a paper aeroplane
The kind you want
So we can fly away on our honeymoon
To take you anywhere you want
To take you
To take you
Wherever you want
Wherever you wanna go
For more songs in Portuguese click here. To learn more about the 30-Day Portuguese Challenge click here or sign up below.