Milonga de Calandria
Jorge Luis Borges
Calandria's Milonga
Servando Cardoso the name
and No Calandria the nickname;
they will not be able to forget
the years, that forget everything.
He wasn't one of those scientists
who use a gun;
it was his pleasure to risk himself
in the knife dance.
How many times in Montiel
the dawn must have seen him
in the arms of a woman
already taken and forgotten.
The weapon of his passion
was the caronero knife.
The Christian and the steel
were one and the same.
Under the shadow eaves
or in the corner of the grapevine,
the hands that dealt death
could also play the guitar.
Fixed on the eyes,
he was able to stop
the sneakiest blow,
Happy those who saw him fight!
Not so happy were those
whose last memory
was the sudden attack
and the steel's entrance.
Always the jungle and the duel
chest to chest and face to face,
he lived killing and fleeing.
He lived as if he were dreaming.
It is said that a woman
go and handed him over to the gang;
to everyone, sooner or later,
life hands us over.
