Alfama is a very old old part of Lisboa.
Streets crawl up and down, narrow walls, narrow intimacy, solar nocturnal labyrinth.
It is near the Castle, facing the river Tagus.
Built by phoenicians, iberians, romans, christians, arabs, jews, merchant, aristocracy, seamen, common people.
Tortuous as a kasbah but here and there you see the River down above the roofs.
The night is heavy (it was much heavier before) of wine and Fado, the song of Saudade, that deep Portuguese feeling of nostalgia and lost love…and even lost nothing.
Every small beco (dead end) and viela (small street) is filled with past generations of men and women that goes back to twenty centuries ago. But they carry no history, they are just living people, with small stories of this and that, big long lives, but they do not care about it.
Students drift here, live in Bohemia, sing and love…
And Fado, that nostalgia…
And Dylan, if it is to think on the changes my generation sees.
Or Miles Davis, if you can think it well
Chet Baker and Funny Valentine…
So, be in
Alfama em Santo Estêvão…
Santo Estêvão
De judeu grego a Protomártir.
Falava demais contra os Libertinos.
Kelila (Coroa), (Stephanos) morre apedrejado às portas de Damasco, Jerusalem (?).
Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians, and Alexandrians, and of them of Cilicia, and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
Condemnation
Tried
Here on the stand
With the book in my hand
And truth on my side
Accusations
Lies
Hand me my sentence
I'll show no repentance
I'll suffer with pride
If for honesty
You want apologies
I don't sympathize
If for kindness
You substitute blindness
Please open your eyes
Condemnation
Why
Because my duty
Was always to beauty
And that was my crime
Feel elation
High
To know I can trust this
Fix of injustice
Time after time
If you see purity
As immaturity
Well it's no surprise
If for kindness
You substitute blindness
Please open your eyes
(depeche mode -Condemnation)
Recebe o meu Espírito
Take this spirit of mine, Lord of the Gods, Holy Light…