“It even costs us to say this”: that winter (Delfins) is about the colonial war – but so current

Miguel Ângelo regrets in a concert the relevance of that letter in the days they run. “Is it always like this”…?

There is always a piano
A wild piano
That froze us
And brings us the image
That winter
In that hell

Miguel Ângelo was in a Delfins concert on June 21, in Leça do Balio (Matosinhos), when he announced the next song in this way: “It is hard to say this…”.

The vocalist and lyricist lamented the current letter of that winter.

The poem was written in 1988 and is the third track on the side of the album released in the same year: the other side exists.

As usual, the song was created by Miguel Ângelo and Fernando Cunha. The lyrics were clear – it was about the colonial war.

He recovered the memories that “freeze the heart”, the images “of that winter and in that hell.” The trauma that came from Africa.

There is always the memory
Of a look to bleed
Of a lost soldier
In overseas lands
By obligation
That mission

The memories of the trauma, which were mainly in the “Lost Soldier in Overseas Lands”, which went to that mission by obligation – as today happens in other places on the planet.

Fight the jungle without knowing why
And feel hell to kill someone
And who returned
Get the sensation
Who fought in a war without reason

Many soldiers – in Portuguese, today from other nationalities – went to the war “unknowingly why”. But they quickly knew what it was like to kill someone. Then they returned with “the feeling” that they were “in a war without reason.”

There is always the word
The word “nation”
The bosses bring and use
To hide the reason
Of your will
That truth

General Paiva Brandão’s (among many others) was clear: “It will be worthwhile when the safety of the populations and the development of the nation’s territories.” The “nation” was – and is – a strong argument for the “bosses.”

And for them that winter
It will always be the same hell
That no one can forget
Have to kill or die
Flavor of the wind
In that torment

Trauma that stay. Because, after all, who can forget “have to kill or die”?

I asked heaven: is it always like this?
Can winter never end?
I don’t know how to answer
Just maybe remember
What someone who came back to tell… remember…
Remember…

And they are trauma that the affected never know if they will have an end. But you should “tell, remember” – not to forget the past.

The colonial war, which took place between 1961 and 1974, will have caused the death of almost 10,000 people, injured 30,000 and leave 140,000 former combatants with post-traumatic disturbance of war stress.

Today, Miguel Ângelo lamented: “Just think of Ukraine, Gaza, Iran…” – and the show has to continue.