Carlos Jobim - A Felicidade (arr. by Roland Dyens) for Guitar (Score video)

“A Felicidade“ (Happiness) is a bossa nova song by Antônio Carlos Jobim, with lyrics by Vinícius de Moraes, composed in 1958 for the French film Orfeu Negro (Black Orpheus). The theme of the song is the fragility of happiness. The lyrics begin: “Tristeza não tem fim. Felicidade sim.“ (“Sadness has no ending. Happiness does.“) The lyrics compare happiness to a drop of dew, a feather floating in the wind, and the poor escaping their reality in the fantasies of Carnaval, emphasizing the transitory nature of each. The final stanzas reference the “namorada“ (girlfriend/sweetheart) of the character singing the song, without touching directly on the theme of impermanence and loss. In the context of the film, however, these stanzas describe Orfeu’s search for Euridice after her death (“É como esta noite, passando, passando, em busca da madrugada...“ (“It’s like tonight, passing, passing, in search of dawn...“). Rolan