Paroles et traduction Edmundo Rivero - El Ciruja

El Ciruja

Como con bronca, y junando
De rabo de ojo a un costado,
Sus pasos ha encaminado
Derecho pa'l arrabal.
Lo lleva el presentimiento
De que, en aquel potrerito,
No existe ya el bulincito
Que fue su único ideal.
Recordaba aquellas horas de garufa
Cuando minga de laburo se pasaba,
Meta punguia, al codillo escolaseaba
Y en los burros se ligaba un metejón;
Cuando no era tan junao por los tiras,
La lanceaba sin tener el manyamiento,
Una mina le solfeaba todo el vento
Y jugó con su pasión.

Era un mosaico diquero
Que yugaba de quemera,
Hija de una curandera,
Mechera de profesión;
Pero vivía engrupida
De un cafiolo vidalita
Y le pasaba la guita
Que le shacaba al matón.
Frente a frente, dando muestras de coraje,
Los dos guapos se trenzaron en el bajo,
Y el ciruja, que era listo para el tajo,
Al cafiolo le cobró caro su amor.
Hoy, ya libre'e la gayola y sin la mina,
Campaneando un cacho'e sol en la vedera,
Piensa un rato en el amor de su quemera
Y solloza en su dolor.

The Ragpicker

As if with a grudge, and sideways
Glancing out of the corner of his eye,
He has made his way
Straight to the slum.
He is driven by the feeling
That in that little field,
There is no longer the hovel
That was his only dream.
He remembered those hours of joyriding
When he had never worked a day,
He would pick pockets until his elbows ached
And he would get drunk on cheap wine;
When he wasn't being chased by the cops,
He would take his chances without a care,
A girl would sing to him all night long
And he played with her passion.

She was a mosaic thief
Who played the part of a fortune teller,
Daughter of a healer,
Thieving by profession;
But she lived under the spell
Of a hustler lover
And she gave him the money
That she stole from the bully.
Face to face, showing their courage,
The two tough guys fought in the alley,
And the rag-picker, who was quick with a knife,
Made the pimp pay dearly for his love.
Now, free of prison and without the girl,
Smoking a cigarette in the gutter,
He thinks for a while about the love of his fortune teller
And he weeps in his sorrow.