La Colorada

I'm from Red Hill
where it doesn't rain,
and where no one crosses the river
when it decides to rise.

In rocks and mounds
both adults and kids work,
hammering all day
so someone else gets rich.

A monkey was passing by singing
on a loaded wagon
and the mule was thinking
damn, what a crappy life.

The fox brought me a chicken
and one afternoon I tracked it,
I saw it was wearing espadrilles
and they were size ten.

I went to Taco and Yaco
to buy a trotter
and I brought back a skinny bay horse,
small and snorer.

I gave water to a scribbler
that was about to dry up
and it paid me back with flowers
that brighten my loneliness.

From morning till night
a monkey sang in the weeds
and as I've been informed
it had swallowed a lizard.

Chacarera, chacarera
from my Red Hill,
the lad who's dancing
I'm gonna choose as a brother-in-law.