The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #5841   Message #34621
Posted By: Jerry Friedman
10-Aug-98 - 03:56 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: La Cucaracha
Subject: RE: Lyric's Needed:
Thanks very much to Teru and Jon! I have some suggestions for both the transcription and translation:

1. The first line should be "...voy a hacer una toquilla" "Toquilla" is "knitted shawl" according to Langenscheidt's Spanish-English Dictionary.

Refrain: I don't see any reason to call the cockroach "she" instead of "it".

2. Zopilote means vulture, "buzzard". Ratón is mouse, not rat (rata), oddly enough (since words ending in -ón usually mean something big). I have no idea what a sacristan's mouse might be, but maybe it's related to "poor as a church mouse"? Incidentally, there's an accent in "sacristán".

3. The second line looks to me like, "The followers of Carranza are already leaving, why are the followers of Villa coming?"

4. It should be either "Una panadera" (a female baker, a baker's wife) or "Un panadero" (a male baker--and it would scan). "Rezar" is not "to laugh" (reír) but "to pray, to plead for". It seems to have many colloquial meanings too. So I'd try

A baker went to Mass; not finding anything to pray for,
He asked the Pure Virgin for marijuana to smoke.

The line ends at "Virgen" (since consecutive vowels are sung as one syllable in Spanish), but I think there could be a double meaning: "He asked the Virgin for pure marijuana to smoke."

5. I believe it should be "uno quiere a una" (I've seen it printed that way), and I'm sure it should be "encuentra un peine".

6. It calls old women tin foil, not just tin.

8. It should be either "Necesita" (one needs, you need, as Jon translated it) or possibly "Necesito" (I need). Also "hacer", not "hecer". Langenscheidt, whoever he or she is, translates "caminata" as "hike".

"Mandar" has several meanings, including "send", but here I think "Convención" is the object and "Zapata" is the subject. Then it makes more sense as

You need an automobile to make the journey
To the place where Zapata ruled (governed, commanded) the Convention.

No doubt this is a very funny joke about a highly important event in Mexican history, but I'm missing the whole thing.