ONLY A DREAM IN RIO
(Written by James Taylor)
Cassandra Wilson


More than a distant land over a shining sea.
More than the steaming green. More than the shining eyes.
Well they tell me it's only a dream in Rio.
Nothing could be as sweet as it seems on this very first day down.
They remind me, "Son, have you so soon forgotten?"
Often as not it's rotten inside and the mask soon slips away.
Strange taste of a tropical fruit, romantic language of the 
Portuguese.
Melody on a wooden flute, samba floating in the summer breeze.

It's all right, you can stay asleep, you can close your eyes,
you can trust the people of paradise to call your keeper and tender 
your good-byes.

Oh, what a night, wonderful one in a million frozen fire Brazilian 
stars.
Oh, holy southern cross, later on take me way downtown in a tin can.
Can't come down from the bandstand, I'm never thrown for such a loss 
when they say:
Quando a nossa mãe cordar, andaremos ao sol.
Quando a nossa mãe acordar, cantará pelo sertão. 
Quando a nossa mãe acordar, todos os filhos saberão.
Todos os filhos saberão e regozijarão.

Caught in the rays of the rising sun on the run from the soldier's 
gun.
Shouting out loud from the angry crowd, the mild the wild and the 
hungry child.
I'll tell you there's more than a dream in Rio. 
I was there on the very day and my heart came back alive.
There was more, more than the singing voices, 
more than the upturned faces and more than the shining eyes.

But it's more than the shining eye, more than the steaming green,
more than the hidden hills, more than the concrete Christ,
more than a distant land over a shining sea,
more than a hungry child, more like another time.
Born of a million years, more than a million years.



(Contributed by Sören Sjögren - April 2002)
(Corrections by Letícia Perobelli - August 2003)