Nicanor Parra -Sinfonía de cuna-

Sinfonía de cuna

Una vez andando
Por un parque inglés
Con un angelorum
Sin querer me hallé.

Buenos días, dijo,
Yo le contesté,
Él en castellano,
Pero yo en francés.

Dites moi, don angel.
Comment va monsieur.

Él me dio la mano,
Yo le tomé el pie
¡Hay que ver, señores,
Cómo un ángel es!

Fatuo como el cisne,
Frío como un riel,
Gordo como un pavo,
Feo como usted.

Susto me dio un poco
Pero no arranqué.

Le busqué las plumas,
Plumas encontré,
Duras como el duro
Cascarón de un pez.

¡Buenas con que hubiera
Sido Lucifer!

Se enojó conmigo,
Me tiró un revés
Con su espada de oro,
Yo me le agaché.

Ángel más absurdo
Non volveré a ver.

Muerto de la risa
Dije good bye sir,
Siga su camino,
Que le vaya bien,
Que la pise el auto,
Que la mate el tren.

Ya se acabó el cuento,
Uno, dos y tres.


Lullabaloo

As I was walking in
The park one day
I chanced to run into
An angelorium.

Good morning, he said
I answered back, good day.
He was speaking Spanish
But I used French.

Dites moi, Sir Angel
Comment va monsieur.

He stretched out his hand
I grabbed his foot,
You should get a good look
At a real live angel!

As silly as a swan
As cold as a crowbar
As fat as a duck
As ugly as you.

I got a little scared
But I stuck it out.

I tried to touch his feathers
His feathers felt as
Hard as the hard
Shell of a fish,

Just think if it was
Lucifer!

I made him mad
He took a swipe at me
With his golden sword
But I was quick and ducked.

That's the looniest angel
I ever hope to see.

I laughed myself to pieces
I said, goodbye, kind sir
Be on your way.
Have a nice day
Get run over by a car,
Get killed by a train.

So that's the story of the angel.
The End.

Translated by Naomi Lindstrom