I get this crazy urge to yell:
Long Live the Cordillera de Los Andes!
Down With the Cordillera de la Costa!

Reason flies out the window
I just can't stop myself:
Long Live the Cordillera de los Andes!
Down With the Cordillera de la Costa!

Forty years ago
I longed to soar beyond the horizon
to break the shell of my own little self
But I didn't dare
Too late now
I'm not gonna hold back any more.
Long Live the Cordillera de los Andes!
Down With the Cordillera de la Costa!

You hear what I said?
I'm not gonna hold back any more!
Long Live the Cordillera de los Andes!
Down with the Cordillera de la Costa!

Of course it's not my fault
if my vocal cords get cut
(In cases like this
They probably do get cut)
Well, if they get cut,
That means I've really had it,
That there isn't a single hope left anymore.

I am a tradesman,
Indifferent to the setting sun.
A teacher in green pants
Coming apart in tiny droplets.
A petty-bourgeois is what I am
What do I care for sundown skies?
But still I go out on the balcony
And yell at the top of my lungs:
Long Live the Cordillera de los Andes!
Down With the Cordillera de la Costa!

Excuse me if I lose my head
Amid the garden of nature
But I have to yell it until I die:
Long Live the Cordillera de los Andes!
Down With the Cordillera de la Costa!

translated by Naomi Lindstrom
traducido por Naomi Lindstrom

en: revista Latin American Literary Review, 1981.