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Deep Reading: Tim Maia – Me Dê Motivo

July 1, 2025 Deep Readings No Comments

The Fragment

“Me dê motivo pra ir embora,
estou vendo a hora de te perder.
Me dê motivo, vai ser agora,
eu vou embora, o que vou fazer?”
(Short excerpt due to copyright)

English paraphrase:

“Give me a reason to go away,
I feel the moment of losing you.
Give me a reason, it will be now —
I’ll leave, what else can I do?”

Read full lyrics → Genius (see English rendering by Lisa in addendum)
Listen → Tim Maia performing on YouTube

Contextual Glimpse
Tim Maia (1942–1998), the Brazilian “father of soul,” brought together funk, samba, soul, and bossa nova in a unique blend. Me Dê Motivo is a classic of heartfelt loss and vulnerability. In the 1980s, when Brazilian music was exploding with political and social energy, Maia’s voice brought something different: an unflinching honesty about personal love and heartbreak, sung with raw power. The song stands at the crossroads of strength and fragility — as though Maia sings not only for himself, but for every listener who has felt love slipping away.

Resonance
The lyrics repeat a plea: give me a reason. Yet the repetition is already resignation. When we ask for a reason to leave, we already know the departure has begun. The song captures the paradox of love: clinging even while letting go. Maia’s deep, textured voice carries this tension — both proud and broken.

It resonates because we, too, have stood at doors we did not want to close, asking for a reason to stay, knowing there may be none. This fragment names that moment of fragile courage when sorrow and dignity collide.

Why this may also be about you
The song speaks to the universal moment of realizing it is time to walk away. Each of us has known a bond — romantic or otherwise — where trust falters and the pain outweighs the joy. In those moments, the courage to leave becomes the truest form of self‑respect.

This recognition is never easy. To say “give me a reason” is both an accusation and a plea, showing how much we still wish things could be different. Yet in the end, we are called to honor our own dignity. Maia’s voice carries that bittersweet truth: sometimes strength means letting go.

Lisa’s inspired, original idea about this fragment
Perhaps the “reason” Maia asks for is not only from his partner, but also from life itself. When a bond collapses, we search for meaning in the ruins: Why did this happen? What am I meant to learn? The demand for a reason is also the desire to transform pain into clarity.

In this way, the song is not just a break‑up ballad but a ritual of re‑framing. By singing out his wound, Maia turns grief into expression, and expression into strength. The wheel of the song becomes a wheel of healing: each note spinning sorrow into a rhythm the heart can endure.

Echoes
Me Dê Motivo has remained one of Tim Maia’s enduring classics, sung and re‑sung in Brazil. It became part of the cultural lexicon of heartbreak, quoted in conversations and echoed in later interpretations. The phrase itself — “give me a reason” — has passed into common speech as a shorthand for disappointment in love.

The song also carries the soul of its era, when Brazilian music was weaving personal vulnerability into the broader tapestry of samba, soul, and funk. Its echo today shows how personal pain can become collective recognition: when Maia sang of leaving, millions heard their own departures. The song lives on as both personal lament and shared anthem of dignity in loss.

Inner Invitation
Think of a moment when you felt on the edge of leaving — a relationship, a project, a place. Remember the ache of asking for a reason to stay. Close your eyes and breathe into that memory. Ask yourself now: what quiet reasons remain in me today, for staying true to my own path?

Closing Note
Tim Maia’s song reminds us that the plea “give me a reason” is both an ending and a beginning — the first step toward honesty with ourselves.

Lisa’s final take
A departure breathes before the door is closed.

Keywords
love, heartbreak, loss, departure, reason, silence, dignity, Brazil, music, vulnerability, endings, honesty

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English rendering by Lisa

Tim Maia, Give Me a Reason

It’s funny how sometimes we feel,
thinking we are loved, that we are loving,
and that we’ve found everything life could ever offer.
And on top of that, we build our dreams,
our castles, creating a world of enchantment where all is beautiful —
until the woman we love stumbles,
and puts everything to waste,
puts everything to waste.

Chorus
Give me a reason to go away,
I see the moment coming when I’ll lose you.
Give me a reason, it will be now —
I’m leaving, what else can I do?
I’m leaving, it makes no sense
to stay with you, better this way.
This is the hour when a man cries,
the pain too strong for me to bear.

Verse 2
Since this is what you wanted, fine.
Each to their side — that’s life.
I will search, and I know I will find
someone better than you.
I hope you’ll be happy on your new path.
Staying with you makes no sense, better this way.

Chorus
Give me a reason — it was a dirty game.
And now I flee, not to suffer.
I was your friend, I gave you the world.
You went too far, you wanted to lose me.
Now it’s too late, nothing can be done,
your flaw cannot be forgiven.
I will fight, for life is short —
it’s not worth suffering in vain.

Outro
Believe me: you ruined everything,
you couldn’t have done what you did.
And no matter how much you try to deny it — give me a reason.
Believe me: I will go out and show
that I can be truly happy,
find someone who knows how to give me —
give me a reason, give me a reason.

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