Uma pergunta dum estudante cansado de Irlanda

11 comments

1. I guess it’s just green corn (as before it’s harvest), something like [this](https://jooinn.com/images/green-corn-field-1.png).

   But still, not sure, it’s an old song and it isn’t like there are to much besides “milho verde” in the lyrics, so from the context and the little we have in the lyrics my guess would be that he is talking about the green corn fields.

2. Por favor, diz-me que a versão que vais traduzir é [esta](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PzRbKmQ99Lw).

3. It literally means green cornfields, and this is a song from Minho, northern Portugal where corn was usually grown intensively, for bread (broa) and also animal feed. Corn is, was a really important cultural crop in Minho.

   this

   “Ai mondai o meu milho bem”

   ouch, this is almost a quim barreiros innuendo style line. dig/weed my corn well

   The way I interpret the song is when corn gets tall makes for a real opportunity for flirting or kissing or whatever, (namorar, beijar) in a culture where the young people would be heavily controlled, the tal corn crops provide privacy.

4. Milho verde é uma referência ao Portugal rural e ao povo.

   José Afonso (Zeca Afonso) usa o Portugal rural como sendo o original e genuíno em contraponto ao Portugal das cidades (das elites corruptas). O Portugal rural é o oprimido onde se trabalha de sol a sol (agricultura = milho verde).

   É muito difícil interpretar Zeca Afonso sem ter em conta o contexto político Português da altura.

   Green Corn its a reference to the portuguese people who at the time were mostly working in farming in very poor conditions. At the time Portugal was living a dictatorship. All the songs of Zeca Afonso are protest songs against the regime, thats why its very hard for a foreigner to understand the meaning.

5. “Milho verde” literally means “green maize”, as in growing young maize, not yet ready to be harvested.

   Zeca Afonso’s song is an adaptation of a traditional work song from the Beira Baixa (Castelo Branco) region, which used to be sung while working in the maize fields. Some sources call it a “cantiga da sacha” (“hoe song”), as in something that was sung while hoeing. The song is about young people dating while working in the fields. You can find some information (in Portuguese) about the original song [here](https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/62719709.pdf) (pages 138 and 139).

6. Sim, tem um significado cultural. A colheita do milho era um acontecimento importante por várias razões: as pessoas podiam juntar-se e “confraternizar” e também marcava o início do Outono e portanto de maior abastança ( relativamente).

   Existem também outras tradições ligadas à colheita do milho e da experiência comunitária que era.

7. O teu português é óptimo amigo!

8. > tem um significado cultural?

   Yes, to Portuguese listeners it is associated with traditional farm work done in a group. It’s a dog whistle kind of song, there’s nothing specifically political about it but the context of it can be interpreted as political.

9. Ah, afinal os irlandeses sabem falar português, cometemos um erro com o outro irlandês que perguntou sobre os portugueses falarem ou não inglês!

10. Muito obrigado pelas respostas! Todas me ajudarão

11. “Green corn”.

    The culture of Corn was of gigantic importance for Portugal. The introduction of the southern American variant, multiple times more productive, was at the origin of a social revolution like no other before.

    Specially in the Northwestern parts of Portugal, where rain is abundant and the cultures could be irrigated naturally even during the driest of summers, a new civilization literally was born.

    Starting in the XVI century, the entire landscape of the region started to change. Not only that but the social organization and the villages themselves adapted and prospered at an impressive rate. Furthermore, it was from then on that the numbers of the population started to grow SIGNIFICANTLY.

    The insane production that the southern American variant brought allowed people to have calories in form of bread that weren’t available before. As such, fields who were occupied by cattle began to be used for grass in the winter and corn in the summer. Cattle was moved upper the mountains and production of meat, milk and cheese was drastically reduced. Some authors associate the penetration of Olive trees in the northwest as a way to get an abundant source fat now that most of the land was used for corn.

    If you visit the northwest you will still see how people have built an impressive structure dedicated to this culture. From water mines in the mountains to [channels to bring it to the fields while passing trough mills](https://bermudarover.files.wordpress.com/2020/12/0d5ac91d-22c7-4d6e-81e1-d39d76f817cf_1_201_a.jpeg?w=1400&h=) necessary for the processing of the cereal. The entire landscape was now occupied by farms, [new fields were cut into the land](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/paisagensagrarias-1-131019101413-phpapp02/95/paisagens-agrarias-1-10-638.jpg?cb=1382177785), water puddles created everywhere to keep water stored for irrigation, creeks and tenches dug to take the precious liquid all around etc.

    New architectonic elements appeared to both [store the cereal](https://thumbs.web.sapo.io/?W=800&H=0&delay_optim=1&epic=MTYzNOyH6UbFch4E8GLEV6MIhqv+TiN/yfdAhwsPF4223HvSS04nkDwmIo/Ros4a1z+7jwKWSMI9MOvbIOmT+qanRDrH92EQXY4L0zR2Zo6O/Hs=) or [process it](https://books.openedition.org/etnograficapress/docannexe/image/6677/img-37-small517.jpg).

    Most of our grandparents were born and lived trough the last moments of this civilization that started to die off around the 60’s after WW2 and Portuguese society / economic system shifted.

    Many of the most important social activities and celebration of the rural world were associated with the culture of Corn. From the [“Malhadas”](https://www.museuspontedelima.com/thumbs/cmpontedelima/uploads/writer_file/image/3368/malhada_1_930_666.jpg) (communitarian process of beating the corn cob to release the corn) to the [“Desfolhadas”](https://fotos.web.sapo.io/i/G22086e0b/19194826_Zfy8e.jpeg) (separation of the cob from the leaves).

    Important to the musical aspect of your post:

    – Those communitarian celebration were almost always [accompanied by music](http://www.scmlamego.pt/home/images/imprensa/idosos_desfolhadaii_milho_outubro_2016.jpg) and were one of the high points of the agrarian folk culture. As such, this particular song about Corn is also a homage to those not so distant times that still have an immense weight in regional rural Portuguese culture.