Aquí Vengo a Cantar

I come from a long and wide land
that lies beyond the sea unknown.
Open plain to the sky, wild land
inhabited by men who in the night
start to sing to the stars
to the sound of rhythmic guitars.

Dress rehearsal for death
in the hoarse beat of some voices
that only find rest when they sing
songs they learned from other men
in nights spent by the fire
listening to rhythmic guitars.

I learned those songs in the night,
looking as a child up at the stars
and like those men I wanted to sing
open new paths along old trails
walking endlessly with the songs
that I have been able to glean from my harvest.

Here I come to sing as they sing,
I am a son of the pampas, I am a herder
who traded the whip for the word
and instead of cows, shepherds dreams.
Songs that other men taught me
or that I composed, thinking of them.
I find reason to be in my songs
the only baggage I have.