Waters of March has been billed as one of Brazil’s most popular songs but I had never paid it much attention other than as enjoyable background music. That changed recently when it played in a cafe and I was bowled over by the stream of consciousness lyrics which speak of the cycles of life and decay. Using a cascade of seemingly opposing snapshots Antônio Carlos Jobim paints a rich non-dualistic picture of life.

What makes the song resonate further for me, is that it was written during a fascistic period of Brazil where journalists and artists were being jailed and murdered for speaking out against the regime. In this tense time, Jobim was able to use the Zen-like calm of bossa nova and powerful metaphor to offer an opposing narrative to the air of inevitability that the authoritarian regime was trying to project.

A youtube comment adding some interesting context, reminding listeners that March is Brazil’s start of autumn and one of mud, rain, overflowing rivers. This is not necessarily a song of blooming but something messier, torrential.

It’s the wind blowing free, It′s the end of the slope, It’s a beam, it′s a void, It’s a hunch, it′s a hope