Porompompero

[pepe]

Can someone explain in plain English the meaning of the words of this (Manolo escobar) song. I am not looking for more than the literal meaning, i.e. to any cultural references, that is how the second verse is connected to the third verse (if at all), in terms of Spanish and/or gypsy heritage.

Thanks in advance!

A los chicos de mi cara
Les voy a poner un candao
Por no ver las cosas raras
De este niсato chalao, por no,
Por no ver las cosas raras de esй,
De ese niсato chalao que te,
Que te apunta y no dispara.

El cateto de tu hermano
Que no me venga con leyes,
Es payo y yo soy gitano
Que llevo sangre de reyes, que es pa,
Que es payo y yo soy gitano, que lle,
Que llevo sangre de reyes en la,
En la palma de la mano.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by pepe

A los clisos de mi cara
Les voy a poner un candao
Por no ver las cosas raras
De este niñato chalao, por no,
Por no ver las cosas raras de ese,
De ese niñato chalao que te,
Que te apunta y no dispara.

El cateto de tu hermano
Que no me venga con leyes,
Es payo y yo soy gitano
Que llevo sangre de reyes, que es pa,
Que es payo y yo soy gitano, que lle,
Que llevo sangre de reyes en la,
En la palma de la mano.

I've corrected a few words.
I don't know if you noticed, but the ending 'que es pa' is truncated and continued on the next stanza 'que es payo'. The same goes for 'por no' and 'por no ver ...', and 'de ese' and 'de ese niñato ...'. Ditto for 'chalao que te' and 'chalao que te apunta ...'.

clisos = eyes (from the language of the gypsies)
candao = candado = lock
chalao = chalado = crazy
cateto = country bumpkin (derogatory: hick)
payo = non-gypsy (derogatory)

So, all you've really got in the first verse above is:
A los clisos de mi cara les voy a poner un candao,
por no ver las cosas raras de ese niñato chalao que te apunta y no dispara.

And in the second verse above, this is all it says:
El cateto de tu hermano que no me venga con leyes,
Es payo y yo soy gitano que llevo sangre de reyes en la palma de la mano.

So, more or less, the translation is:
I'm going to lock up my eyes because they don't see the weirdness of that crazy kid that points at you and doesn't shoot.
Let not your brother's hayseed come to me with laws.
He's white and I'm a gypsy that carries the blood of kings in the palm of my hand.

[pepe]

Thank you, Rusty!

But what does it mean to "lock up your eyes"? is it to just to close them?
and what does it mean that he points but do not shoot?

How would one translate this not literally but in plain English??

Thanks, pepe

[Rusty]

Translating lyrics is the hardest thing to do. Much gets lost in the translation, mostly because we have no real context to go on.

The lyrics seem to contain figurative speech, so that is what I loosely translated into English. The figurative speech is plain English to native speakers of the language.

locking up someone's eyes = forcing someone's eyes closed
pointing (a gun) at someone and not shooting = playing with someone's emotions = flirting but all for show (with no real intent)

[pepe]

Great! this is the kind of interpretation I was looking for!!

Thanks a lot

[ROBINDESBOIS]

This song was very popular in the late 60s I think, it´s very old !