Galpon de Ayer

This little milonga brings me memories
Of those times when the end of the harvest was celebrated
Back around Christmas and New Year's

Since there was little money, it was also taken advantage of
To celebrate grandma's birthday
Someone's wedding or baptism
And those parties lasted for weeks around there
Until the red wine runs out
The flour to make empanadas
Or until some gaucho left gathering his guts
With the poncho to the side of the hospital

Beautiful times those
Times of hard work
Time of milonga
Of accordions
Of phonograph that had to be turned with the finger on the record
Of sun at night, of rough sheds
That's why I wrote this milonga once
Dedicated to those times, those men
Who in some way also
Left a mark on my life

Big party of 'meta y ponga'
Half candombe, and half milonga
The greengrocer grumbles and the women
In the 'villalonga', complain because the old lady
Advises them not to expose themselves
To the advances of the locals
And the gossip of the others

An old man who spits on the eyebrow
Has no time to give advice
And standing on a thread
He drinks gin, hard and steady

The fat woman making empanadas
Is upset because her old man
Is busy making passes
At the gathering with Santillán

Fierce milonga, shed of yesterday
Smell of leather, fierce knife that is thirsty
Poor clothing, heavy belt
Deck of cards and bone and a half prayer for some 'fina'o'
Fierce milonga, I was also
Thistle and grass, from the banks of that time

The harvest was even
Forty bags and from the old ones
People walk with a guitar
And drown sorrows and complaints in the revelry

Gin gives confidence
And on the scale it is no longer weighed
Neither the roasted meat, nor the poverty
Nor the sadness that has passed

Play the accordion
Sing a verse for the landlady
Take it easy, man, don't push
What creaks doesn't get starched

The orange in the brazier
Covers the pigsty with its aroma
While the sun on the hill
Drunk takes what's left

Fierce milonga, shed of yesterday
Smell of leather, fierce knife that is thirsty
Poor clothing, heavy belt
Deck of cards and bone and a half prayer for some 'fina'o'
Fierce milonga, I was also
Thistle and grass, from the banks of that time
Thistle and grass, from the banks of that time
From that time
From that time