Ruthless Flower of Desire

When you want the gun, I am the hand

and when you want money, I am emotion

When you want to rest, I am desire

and when I'm all desire, you don't want

and when you want nothing, I give you all

when you fly up high, I am the ground

and when step on the ground, my soul jumps and frees itself in the vastness...

When you want family, I am derranged

and when you want romatic, bourgeois

when you want the suburb, I am downtown

and when you want eunuch, the stud.

When you want yes or no, maybe

and when you see, I am blind reason

when you want the insane, I am the brother

and when you want cowboy, I am chinese

Oh ruthless flower of desire, ruthless flower, ruthless wanting.

Poised lust (4)

gives place to poised hurt (8)

the church (3)

brings distinction (2)

beauty stab (9)

fear (6)

and your hand I wish to hold (5)

take me to your dreams (11)

the soil (1)

and God (7)

your face (10) stands still

and your embrace (12) saves me

These are the 12 states of the mind

all with the capacity to change your smile!

When you want the act, I am the spirit

and when you want tenderness, I am a hard on

when you want free ryme, decassylable

and when you want the angel, I am the woman

when you want pleasure, I am what hurts

and when you want torture, gentleness

when you wnat a home, revolution

and when you want the outlaw, I am the hero

I wanted to want you, to love love

to build the most naked prison

to find the most coherent harmony

all just metric, and ryme, and never pain

but life is real, and sideways

just see the ambush, love set me

I want you, but you don't want me how I am

I don't want you, and you don't want the way you are!

Oh ruthless flower of desire, ruthless flower, ruthless wanting

Even if the blood of a lamb

and the light of a lamp

tell me, you got to surrender your part

still I say, a man must follow his heart

if love killed Abel, and love killed Cain

"to be or not to be" said the great Dane

still I claim, love is no boundary

love pulls my train

and love has my brain!

And when I seal the blue

and the wind shouts true

I see all those angels

and I swear I see you!

When you want the rally, I am the mass

and when you want romance, rock and roll

when you want the moon, I am the sun

and when nature nurtures, extermination

When you want the riddle, I am the slogan

and when you want a corner, the whole world

When you want lent, I am Mardi Gras

and when you want the palm tree, I am the Missile!

Your wanting, and constant readiness

for what in me create sthe unequal

makes me wish you well, wish you evil

well to you, evil for you wanting me this way

my infinite personal hammer

And myself, wanting to eant without end

wanting to learn you, the whole

not wanting what's in you, and not in me.


By Caetano Veloso (Translation from "Bruta Flor do Querer") and Luis Rocha

Back to Luis Rocha's Page

e-mail: rocha@lanl.gov
Last Modified: November 3, 1997