Cafetín de Buenos Aires

As a kid, I watched you from the outside
Like those things that are never reached...
The nose against the glass
In a cold blue,
That only later living
Just like mine...

Like a school of all things,
Already as a boy, you gave me in amazement
The cigarette,
The faith in my dreams
And a hope of love...

How can I forget you in this complaint,
Cafetín from Buenos Aires,
If you are the only thing in life
That resembled my old lady?

In your miraculous mix
Of know-it-alls and suicides,
I learned philosophy, dice, gambling
And the cruel poetry
Of not thinking about myself anymore...

You gave me a handful of friends in gold,
Who are the same ones who encourage my hours:
José, the one with the chimera;

Marcial, who still believes and hopes;
And skinny Abel, who left us,
But still guides me...

On your tables that never ask
I cried one afternoon the first disappointment;
I was born to sorrows,
I drank my years
And I surrendered without fighting...