Lyrics and translation Mercedes Sosa - Del Tiempo De Mi Niñez

Del Tiempo De Mi Niñez

Mi mamá sabía decirme
Me acuerdo cuando era chango
Usted se acuesta a la siesta
No vayas a andar hondiando

Ay nomás ya me ordenaba
Que algo en el suelo tirara
Y debajito el alero
En un cuerito siestiara

Que lindos tiempo coco
Hermoso

Bajo el sopor de la siesta
Todo en silencio quedaba
Y con los changos pa′l monte
En puta e'pie me escapaba

Que lejos que queda ahora
Esa niñez añorada
Quisiera mamá me mandes
Que en un cuerito siestiara

Parece que fuera ahora
Cuando mi mamá ordenaba
Que un mandadito le hiciera
A los rezongos rumbeaba

Si me encontraba a los changos
Que a las bolitas jugaban
La bolsa de los mandados
A un costadito quedaba

Yo sacaba mi terita
Y si por ahí yo ganaba
Como nidito y boyero
Mi bolsillito quedaba

Ay yayita sin la plata
Por jugar se me estraviaba
Antes de llegar a casa
Ella el teriño largaba

From the Time of My Childhood

My mama used to say to me
I remember when I was a monkey
You go to bed for a nap
Don't go around digging

But there I was already being ordered
To drop something on the ground
And under the eaves
In a little hide for a nap

What a beautiful time, my darling
Beautiful

Under the drowsiness of the nap
Everything went silent
And with the monkeys in the forest
On a donkey's foot I escaped

How far away that seems now
That longed-for childhood
I wish my mama would send me
To take a nap in a little hide

It seems like it was just yesterday
When my mama ordered
For me to run an errand
I would head off grumbling

If I found the monkeys
Who were playing marbles
The bag of errands
Would be left to one side

I would take out my slingshot
And if I won
As a nest egg and a cowherd
My little pocket would be full

Oh, yayita, without the money
I lost it playing
Before I got home
She would let go of the slingshot