Me muero y ya no me escapo
This rhyme comes from the region of Antioquia, Colombia.
Me muero y ya no me escapo
I'm Dying and I Can No Longer Escape
Retahíla
Rhyme
(Spanish)
(English)
Me muero y ya no me escapo
Gritaba una vieja en la plaza
Y echando espesa babasa
cayó en tierra como un sapo;
"Socorro por Dios, gritaba
Que ya me tragó la tierra
Me estoy muriendo de hambre
Por esta maldita guerra."
Los médicos que la vieron
pues se aterraron del caso,
Lo primero que encontraron
Fue las alas del gallinazo
Las gafas de Marcelino, cascaras de mamoncillo
Ciento veinte cucarachas, una medalla, un ratón;
Y aquí empieza la emoción por no decir espanto
pues le encontraron un santo, una medalla, un ratón;
y por mi parte les digo que aguantar hambre es más duro
que una patada de un burro en el ojal del ombligo
Encomendémonos pues al santo más barrigón,
Que nos dé la jartazón* por siempre.
¡Amen!
"I'm dying and I can no longer escape"
An old woman in the square was shouting
And drooling thick spittle.
She fell to the ground like a toad;
"Help! for God's sake," she screamed,
"The earth has already swallowed me,
I'm starving
Because of this damned war."
The doctors who examined her
Were terrified by her case.
The first thing they found
Was the wings of the buzzard,
Marcelino's glasses, peels from Spanish limes
One hundred and twenty cockroaches, a medal, a mouse;
And here begins the emotion, not to say fear,
Well, they found in her a saint, a medal, a mouse;
And as for me, I tell you that enduring hunger is harder
Than a kick from a donkey in the buttonhole of the navel
Let's therefore entrust ourselves to the most potbellied saint,
May he give us satiety forever.
Amen!
Notes
*Some clarification from Jessica: "'Jartazón' refers to 'jartar', a colloquial Colombian word that means 'To eat without chewing a lot, to eat without education'. It means that in the text, she asks from God that they don't lack food, that it would be abundant so that they can eat a lot, and with exaggerated manners."
Comments
Jessica wrote, "My 95 year old grandma who's still living and my grandpa who passed away two years ago aged 97 used to recite it. They're country people from the department of Antioquia (los Paisas) and they learned it from oral tradition when they were children. I never came across it either, I transcribed it directly from them." – Jessica, 2023
Thanks and Acknowledgements
Many thanks to Jessica Palacio Henao for contributing this rhyme! Translated by Monique Palomares.
