The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #5841 Message #2340284
Posted By: GUEST,Chicken Charlie
14-May-08 - 10:47 AM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: La Cucaracha
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: La Cucaracha
To reinforce a couple things which, though already stated correctly somewhere have been re-stated incorrectly:
Una escena me da risa One thing gives me a laugh
Pancho Villa sin camisa Pancho Villa with no shirt (on)
Which is natural, because judging by late pix, Villa hadn't seen his sixpack abs in decades.
Ya se van las Caranzistas Now Caranza's men are running
Po'rque vienen los Villistas Because Villa's men are here.
--Literally "are coming," but to fit the meter, I sing it "are here."
It's not just the accent--"why?" is two words, por que?
Because is one word--porque--with the accent on the o.
Verses I may have missed but don't recall seeing above and am too tired to SEARCH are these--
Mi vecina de enfrente My neighbor cross the way
Se llamaba Don~a Clara Is a girl named Don~a Clara,
Y si no habia muerto And if she hasn't died yet,
Es probable se llamara She'll be known as that tomorrow.
Maybe pure nonsense, but possibly the intimation is that poor D.C. is rather plain; her name will not change because no one will marry her.
Las muchachas de la villa All the girls in the city
No saben ni dar un beso Don't know nothing about kissing,
Cuando las de Albuquerque While the ones in Albuquerque
Hasta estiran la pezqueso Stretch their necks to keep
from missing.
La, not el, with body parts. See "Levante las manos!" schtick in "Our Man From Havana."
La muchachas de Las Vegas All the girls in Las Vegas
Son muy altas, delgaditas They are tall and very skinny,
Pero son mas perdiguen~as But they're worse for plaintive
pleading
Que las animas benditas. Than the souls in Purgatory.
Please--benditas. Please, dude, do not repeat the egregious mistake of thinking because we're talking bandits that it must be banditas, which actually would mean little flags. Benditas. Sorry, I'm overly retentive on this point.
The car thing? Necesita automovil ....
I have another take on it: GTA I. Zapata is still alive when the verse is sung. You know that because he has ordered his followers to meet at a certain place & now they have to go there. But amigo, it is very far, no? Si. I think it is so far, we need an automovil to get there, no? Si. Here comes a rich person now, driving one--let's take his, what do you say? Si!
There should be accents on all those si's too.
Anyway, that's a long enough post for one day.
Chicken Charlie, aka Don Carlos de Pollo y Huevos Revueltos