Construção Lyrics in English Chico Buarque

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Below, I translated the lyrics of the song Construção by Chico Buarque from Portuguese to English.

Verse 1

He loved that time as if it were the last

He kissed his woman as if she were the last

And each of his kids as if he were the only one

And crossed the street with his timid step

He climbed the building site as if he were a machine

He raised on the landing four solid walls

Brick on brick in a magic design

His eyes blurred with cement and tears

He sat to rest as if it were Saturday

He ate beans with rice as if he were a prince

He drank and sobbed as if he were a castaway

He danced and laughed out loud as if he heard music

And stumbled in the sky as if he were drunk

And floated in the air as if he were a bird

And ended on the ground like a flaccid package

He agonized in the middle of the public sidewalk

He died against the traffic blocking the flow

He loved that time as if he were the last

He kissed his woman as if she were the only one

And each of his kids as if he were the prodigal

And crossed the street with his drunken step

He climbed the building site as if it were solid

He raised on the landing four magic walls

Brick on brick in a logical design

His eyes blurred with cement and traffic

He sat to rest as if he were a prince

He ate beans with rice as if it were the best

He drank and sobbed as if he were a machine

He danced and laughed out loud as if he were the next

And stumbled in the sky as if he heard music

And floated in the air as if it were Saturday

And ended on the ground like a timid package

He agonized in the middle of the castaway sidewalk

He died against the traffic hindering the crowd

He loved that time as if he were a machine

He kissed his woman as if it were logical

He raised on the landing four flaccid walls

He sat to rest as if he were a bird

And floated in the air as if he were a prince

And ended on the ground like a drunken package

He died against the traffic hindering Saturday

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SONG MEANING

Construção tells the poetic yet brutal story of one anonymous construction worker who lives an entire lifetime in a single day. Every action he performs — from kissing his wife to laying bricks — is done “as if it were the last”, lending an almost heroic grandeur to ordinary moments. Chico Buarque uses this hypnotic repetition to show how love, labor, and routine can feel both precious and mechanical at the same time.

We follow the worker through his dawn-to-dusk shift until a tragic fall ends his life and literally stops traffic. The song exposes the fragile line between human dreams and urban machinery, hinting at social injustice and the invisibility of those who build the city but rarely reap its rewards. By mixing everyday images (beans and rice) with soaring metaphors (floating like a bird), Buarque invites us to celebrate human dignity while questioning a system that reduces people to replaceable parts.

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Chico Buarque Construção Lyrics