Friday, December 01, 2006

The Unbidden Tune

'Sfunny how some days I wake up in the morning with a tune running through my head, a tune from a popular song of 'our time', the Fifties (Doris Day? Patti Page?), a catchy tune repeated over and over without surcease. If I try consciously to get the tune to stop, it may do so for a spell. And then suddenly it returns unbidden, sticking in my consciousness like a nettle. (Speaking of which reminds me now of how the guy invented the loop-and-hook configuration of the Velcro fastener from wondering how nettles would stick to his trouser leg.)

So here's today's tune. It happens to be The Birthday Song. It happens to be "Happy Birthday" sung in Portuguese. I recall that a large group of us were on a visit to Portugal in 1997 (after the first major surgery of my life), and we were all having fun in a restaurant in the town of Mealhada, which is famed for its roast suckling pig. We were singing all kinds of songs, from national anthems to Auld Lang Syne, and then we discovered it was someone's birthday, and so we sang:

Parabéns a você
Nesta data querida
Muitas felicidades
Muitos anos de vida!

Tenha tudo do bom
Do que a vida contém
Tenha muita saúde
E amigos também

Hoje é dia de festa
Cantam as nossas almas
Para o menino(a) "aniversariante"
Uma salva de palmas!

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