02 June 2013

Mexer.

This is it; this word is it.  The keystone, the code, the fragment of DNA that maps the whole genome of Brazilian Portuguese.  Or at least the whole big space it occupies in my imagination. Spanish's mover is so torpid; its menear is even worse. I mean it's to Spanish speakers' great credit that they move at all (in fact I'm pretty sure they do, much better than English speakers, notwithstanding to move's relative gusto).  But mexer?  There's a word that does its job.  That subtlety.  That verve.  Imagine how the world could move with a verb like mexer.  Or maybe couldn't -- maybe God put mexer in Brazil because he knew that's where it would fulfill the measure of its creation.  Well, it worked.

Falsa Baiana by João Gilberto on Grooveshark

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