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Incidentally, I worry a lot about shampoo

And who among us cannot say the same? Many are the sleepless nights I’ve spend worrying whether Full & Soft was the right choice for me, or whether I was more of a Deep Moisturizing girl…

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However, it seems to me that one should begin with a crude outline translation, and only then try to render it into good English sense.

Perhaps you would like to attempt this second stage.

A third stage might be to make it all rhyme as well.

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To be pedantic I would just question:

>luciendo los tatuajes
de un pasado bucanero,

Lighting the tattoos
of a past buccaneer,

Surely ‘luciendo’ from ‘lucer’ means displaying with applomb in this context therefore ‘flaunting’ might perhaps be the more fitting word…

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One can use Google or Free Translation to help.

I can translate Spanish a little bit, but Joaquin Sabina is also a considerable poet as well as singer, and that makes it harder. I’ll just try translating line by line, word by word. Here’s my best crude outline guess:

Se peinaba a lo garçon
la viajera que quiso enseñarme a besar
en la gare d’Austerlitz.

She was combing her hair in boyish style
The traveller who wanted
To teach me to kiss
In Austerlitz station

Primavera de un amor
amarillo y frugal como el sol
del veranillo de san Martín.

The springtime of a love,
yellow and frugal like the sun,
In the brief summer of St Martin.

Hay quien dice que fui yo
el primero en olvidar
cuando en un si bemol de Jacques Brel
conocí a mademoiselle Amsterdam.

Someone said that I was
The first to forget
When in one flat note of Jacques Brel,
I got to know mademoiselle Amsterdam.

En la fatua Nueva York
da más sombra que los limoneros
la estatua de la libertad,
pero en desolation row

In conceited New York,
The Statue of Liberty
Gives more shadow than the lemon trees,
But in Desolation Row.

las sirenas de los petroleros
no dejan reír ni volar
y, en el [t]oro de Babel,
desafina un español.

The sirens of the oil tankers
Don’t allow laughter or escape,
And in the tower of Babel,
A Spaniard is out of tune.

No hay más ley que la ley del tesoro
en las minas del rey Salomón.
Y desafiando el oleaje
sin timón ni timonel,

There is no greater law than the law of treasure
In the mines of king Solomon,
And defying the swell
Without helm or helmsman.

por mis sueños va, ligero de equipaje,
sobre un cascarón de nuez,
mi corazón de viaje,
luciendo los tatuajes

So my dreams go, with little baggage,
On a shell of walnut,
My heart of journey,
Showing off the tattoos

de un pasado bucanero,
de un velero al abordaje,
de un no te quiero querer.

Of a past buccaneer,
Of an approaching sailing ship,
Of one I don’t wish you to want.

Y cómo huir
cuando no quedan
islas para naufragar
al país
donde los sabios se retiran
del agravio de buscar
labios que sacan de quicio,

And how to escape
When they don’t stay on
shipwreck islands
In a country
Where the wise men retreat
From the offence of seeking
Lips that unhinge. (drive mad)

mentiras que ganan juicios
tan sumarios que envilecen
el cristal de los acuarios
de los peces de ciudad
que mordieron el anzuelo,
que bucean a ras del suelo,
que no merecen nadar.

Lies that win trials
So summary that they disgrace
The glass of the aquariums
of the fish of the city
That bit the hook,
Which dive to floor level
That they don’t deserve to swim.

El Dorado era un champú (campeon?),
la virtud unos brazos en cruz,
el pecado una página web.

El Dorado was a shampoo (champion?),
The virtue some arms in cross,
The sin a web page.

En Comala comprendí
que al lugar donde has sido feliz
no debieras tratar de volver.

In Comala I understood
that at the place where you have been happy
you should not try to return.

Cuando en vuelo regular
pisé el cielo de Madrid
me esperaba una recién casada
que no se acordaba de mí.

When on a regular flight
I stepped the sky of Madrid
I hoped for a recently married woman
Who did not agree with me.

Y desafiando el oleaje
sin timón ni timonel,
por mis venas va, ligero de equipaje,
sobre un cascarón de nuez,
mi corazón de viaje,

And defying the swell
Without helm or helmsman,
Through my veins go, with little luggage,
On a shell of walnut,
my heart of journey.

luciendo los tatuajes
de un pasado bucanero,
de un velero al abordaje,
de un liguero de mujer.

Lighting the tattoos
of a past buccaneer,
Of an approaching sailing ship,
Of a woman’s garter.

Y cómo huir
cuando no quedan
islas para naufragar
al país
donde los sabios se retiran
del agravio de buscar
labios que sacan de quicio,

And how to escape
When they don’t stay on
shipwreck islands
In a country
Where the wise men retreat
From the offence of seeking
Lips that unhinge.

mentiras que ganan juicios
tan sumarios que envilecen
el cristal de los acuarios
de los peces de ciudad
que perdieron las agallas
en un banco de morralla,
en una playa sin mar.

Lies that win trials
So summary that they disgrace
The glass of the aquariums
of the fish of the city
That lost the gills
on a bench of riff-raff,
on a beach without sea.

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This is a very odd Flash movie, from a very strange but beautiful site. I’m pasting it here because it has such incredible flamenco music from Domingo Alvarado.

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The song is of a sad, Fado-type- longing wreathed with sadness and looking to the past

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