Cordel: The Backlands of Conselheiro of Euclides and Gereba

I was born on wild soil
In this sertão (3) of caatinga (4),
The berth of such a simple people,
Humble and hospitable
There in Quixeramobim (5)
Of Antônio Conselheiro.

Ceará (6), Land of Light
That the sun rises to illuminate
Of Capistrano de Abreu (7)
Of the brave Dragon of the Ocean,
Of Maciel (8) and Araújo (9),
Of Feitosa (10) and Alencar (11).

Being born in the same land
Of a great helmsman
I was baptized Antônio
(The name of the messenger
And prophet of Canudos
Saint Antônio Conselheiro).

Commanding the rhythm and the verse
I don’t rhyme against the tide
To speak of Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands)
I place faith in the work
I write together with the poet
Rouxinol do Rinaré. (12)

The great classic Os Sertões (Rebellion in the Backlands)
Precious treasure
Great work of Euclides
It is having a birthday
It is completing in 2002
Its first centenary.

This important work
That Euclides published
Narrates the War of Canudos
So, Gereba researched
Producing his CD
That PAULUS (13) published.

The great classic “Os Sertões” (Rebellion in the Backlands)
Reveals to us the absurdities
The clamor of the destitute
In the mind of the deaf men
Arrogant, powerful
Who massacred Canudos.

In the state of Ceará
With such uniqueness
Appear priests and holy people
Preaching the Holy Truth
Possessed with great spirit
Of religiosity.

In the year of eighteen hundred
Twenty-eight, at last
Sonorous hymn heard
In the voice of a cherub
Antônio Conselheiro was born
There in Quixeramobim.

Antônio Vicente Mendes (14)
Maciel, was baptized
But was raised in an environment
Of tormented conflict
In a family war
That had death as its fate.

Araújos, enemies
Persecutors, and the like
Powerful and cowards
People of bad temperment
They stained the land with blood
There in Quixeramobim.

Antônio, religious
He had a drive to study
So he thought about the Seminary
To be ordained, one day
But the studies, so expensive
His father could not pay.

And, a marked life
By great deceptions
Antônio begins to preach
In villages and towns
His great prophecies
And his beautiful sermons.

As Father Ibiapina (15)
Our Antônio Conselheiro
Went through the whole Northeast
With faith in the true God
Padre Cícero (16) and Zé Lourenço (17)
Follow the same script.

It was Antônio Conselheiro
For the northeast people
A good father and protector
Of divine feeling
The oppressed gave him
The reins of his destiny.

He preached against taxes
And the republican evils
He was simple in his dress
With very Puritan fashion
He pursued the beast
In the trail of the mundane.

He founded his Canudos
Like God-Father requested
From a small town
Soon he would transform
The second largest city
Of the state of Bahia!

In the cultivation of the crops
In the most perfect union
Conselheiro preached there
Penance and prayer
And the lucky destitute
He welcomed as a family.

At the end of the 19th Century
There in the corners of Bahia
A new socialist
Experience appeared
With the charisma of one man
He would enlighten everything.

Having in the messianic faith
The affirmation
Conselheiro promised
Love, peace, and equality
Everything there was for all
In the greatest simplicity.

About Conselheiro, we end
Our considerations
To speak of a reporter
Who went to those corners
Whose name was Euclides da Cunha
Author of the book “Os Sertões.” (Rebellion in the Backlands)

It was Euclides da Cunha
A military graduate
He served, and after requesting discharge
Already with the level of captain
As a reporter-writer
He left for the sertão

From the newspaper Estado de São Paulo
He went as a correspondent
And of the War of Canudos
He made a moving account
He wrote his version
Of the drama of those people.

The great Euclides da Cunha
Will be remembered forever
As an exemplary writer;
Left us an abundant legacy
With his work “Os Sertões:”
Which became immortalized.

In the one hundred years of “Os Sertões”
A treasured man of words
Gereba releases a CD
He creates a musical journey
Recording his new epic
(A marker of the centenary!)

Gereba is from Monte Santo
There in the sertão of Bahia
The state of Castro Alves
Where one day Conselheiro
The city of Belo-Monte
With the pilgrims, he constructed.

Gereba is a guitar player
Singer and composer
He has 30 years of experience
And also proves his worth
In more than forty records
As a great arranger.

In the musical universe
Gereba unties the knot
With an innovative spirit
He creates the group Bendegó
And in the Bahian carnaval (18)
He created “Carnaforró.” (19)

In the south of France and Madrid
He displayed his talent in tour
With our native music
Brazilian one hundred percent
In the year ninety-one
He realized a great event.

And our PAULUS Music
Showed sensibility
In the redemption of a piece
Of our “Brazilianness”
It is the “Communication
To the Service of Truth.”

“Canudos did not surrender
Even triumphing the death!”
(Said Euclides da Cunha
Lamenting the sad luck
He said that “The sertanejo Is, before all else, a strength.”)