Os Tambores De Minas

It was one, it was two, it was a hundred
Thousand drums and voices from beyond
Old hill, slave quarters, full house
Repinica, rebound, swirl
And thunder in the sky is a lantern
It was bass drum, it was bass and it was snare
About-face and more about-face
Pocotó, iron train and a light
Procession, ground of flowers and Jesus
Beat hard until the hand bleeds
And beating for those who have gone
Or beating for those who have returned
The drums of Minas will sound
Their drums never fell silent
It was leather beating and it was tin
It was a bell with the exact note
Foot on the ground and the mulatto's chairs
And the future in the hands of the boy
Drumming for faith and destiny
Beating clothes in the stream the washerwoman
Rhythming in any way
And finally the drum of musculature
The ancestral thump-thump of the heart
When the fever comes, no one holds back
Beat hard until the hand bleeds
The drums of Minas will sound
Their drums never fell silent
The drums of Minas will sound
Their drums never fell silent
Their drums...