Album: Residente o Visitante, 2007
Style: Angry slow rap, violent imagery, folk-style chorus
Country: Puerto Rico
Listen:
This song is angrier and more despairing than Calle 13's other violent and over-the-top songs like "John El Esquizofrénico" and "Algo Con Sentido." The other songs have more fantasy and satirical elements. They're parody; this isn't. This song sounds like snippets were taken from the journal entries of an angry youth who didn't know what to do with himself yet. It is very creepy. The folk-style chorus makes it sound mellow, though. Listen at YouTube here.
Trigger warning: Graphic, violent thoughts directed at the audience.
[Expand embedded video]
Translation:
Tengo ganas de cogerte, estrujarte, romperte,
Morderte, odiarte, el hígado comerte,
Sacarte los ojos,
Mancharte de rojo,
Abrirte las tripas a lo Jack the Ripper. [*tripas, f. noun = guts; stomach]
I want to f*ck you, wring you, break you,
Bite you, hate you, eat your liver,
Gauge your eyes out, [*lit. Take out your eyes]
Stain you in red,
Open your insides like Jack the Ripper.
Tengo ganas de degollarte con lo que escribo,
Usando los peores adjetivos,
Pa' [para] describir el encabronamiento que siento.
I want to slit your throat with what I write,
Using the worst adjectives,
To describe the rage that I feel.
A ti te vo’a [voy a] sacar de tu asiento, de tu sitio, de tu silla.
Con mi propia boquilla, vo’ [voy] arrancarte las rodillas,
Desde las Antillas pa' to'as las pandillas,
El Visitante sacándome palabras con la pista.
You, I’m going to remove from your seat, from your place, from your chair.
With my own little mouth, I will tear out your kneecaps,
From the Antilles* to all the gangs, [*archipelago which includes Puerto Rico]
Visitante pulling out words from me with the beat. [*Calle 13's musician]
Respeto a Nicaragua y a la lucha sandinista.
Ya yo me trague cinco (5) hojas de coca
Que me tienen botando espuma por la boca.
I respect Nicaragua and the Sandinista struggle. [*Refers to the fight against U.S. occupation]
I already swallowed five (5) sheets of coke
That have me spewing foam from my mouth.
Estoy de que si se desbocan y me tocan,
Pongo a cualquiera a bailar la vida loca.
I'm at the point where if you get out of control and touch me,
I'll make anyone dance La Vida Loca (lit. The Crazy Life). [*Refers to bullet dancing and Ricky Martin’s song]
Me vivo la película aunque sea ridícula.
Rápido me pongo bruto como cavernícola,
Y no pienso, el cerebro me falla,
Y me voy en el viaje hasta Himalaya.
I live this movie even if it’s ridiculous.
Quickly, I turn into a brute like the cavemen,
And I don’t think, my brain fails me,
And I go on a journey all the way to the Himalayas. [*drugs reference]
Si le llega a la raya y te quemo en el Masaya,
Si quiere a lo macho, te quemo en el Mombacho,
Y que queda tu cuerpo picadito en picachos.
If it reaches the line and I burn you at the Masaya, [*Nicaraguan volcano]
If you want to take it like a man, I burn you at the Mombacho [*an extinct Nicaraguan volcano]
And let your body stay chopped up in little pieces. [*wordplay: picachos also means summits]
Pinche culero, gringo, gabacho.
Pausa.
F*cking a*hole, gringo, whitey.
Pause.
Yo soy un rebelde con causa.
Soy un guerrillero de la tierra,
Nacido y criado en la sierra,
Entre la maleza, por la cordillera de la guerra.
I am a rebel with a cause.
I am a guerrilla fighter of the earth,
Born and raised in the mountain ranges,
Among weeds, by the hills of war.
Chorus:
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Llegale aqui, a mi guarida.
Jura'o [jurado] to' [todo] el mundo aquí es pura vida
Pero si tu atenta en contra ‘e [de] mi vida,
Quizas una bomba suicida haga el trabajo.
Come here, to my lair.
I swear everybody here is full of life
But if you make an attempt on my life,
Perhaps a suicide bomb will do the job.
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Yo no necesito herramientas;
Lo mio es a mano.
Yo te mato a lo artesano.
I don’t need tools;
I do things by hand.
I kill you artesian-style.
A mano pela, me chupo a cual quier gusano
Mientras me fumo un habano cubano.
With my bare hands, I suck any worm [*Mezcal/tequila reference]
While I smoke a Cuban cigar. [*Another symbol of machismo.]
Quiero partirte los dedos de tu mano.
Quiero rayarte como queso parmesano.
Quiero mandarte a volar y no es en aeroplano.
Hoy no te salva ni el Vaticano.
I want to break your fingers.
I want to grate you like parmesan cheese.
I want to send you flying and not in an airplane.
Today not even the Vatican saves you.
Tranquilo, yo soy un tipo tranquilo.
Yo no soy un ganster, tampoco muevo kilo.
Lo que necesito es algo con filo.
Lo que necesito es media yarda de hilo,
Pa' [para] paseartela por el cuello.
Calm down, I’m a calm guy.
I’m not a gangster, and I don’t move kilos (of drugs) either.
What I need is something sharp.
What I need is half a yard of string,
To slide it across your neck.
Es más, ¡no!
Te ahorco con tu propio cabello.
Tu sientes ira, yo siento ira.
What’s more, no!
I’ll choke you with your own hair.
You feel rage, I feel rage. [*ira, f. noun = ire]
Vamo' [vamos] a ver quien primero delira.
Vamo' a ver como tu cuello se estira.
Vamo' a ver al final quien respira.
Let’s see who goes mad first. [*alt. Let’s see who raves first.]
Let’s see how your neck stretches.
Let’s see who, in the end, still breathes.
Este hombre cuando habla no es en vano.
Que no me saquen pa' fuera lo de indio Araucano.
This man doesn’t speak in vain. [*Referring to himself.]
May you not bring to my surface the Araucano indian. [*South American tribe]
El ejército del pueblo en primer plano,
El coro! Pa’ que suene bonito no necesitamos piano.
Dale! Hey!
The village army to the forefront,
The chorus! For it to sound good, we don’t need a piano.
Go on! Hey!
[Chorus]
Translation Notes:
El Visitante sacándome palabras con la pista.
Visitante pulling out words from me with the beat.
Calle 13 is made of up two half-brothers with the stage names Residente (The Resident, René Pérez Joglar) and Visitante (The Visitor, Eduardo José Cabra Martínez), and a half-sister (PG-13, Ileana Cabra Joglar). When their parents divorced, René moved to a gated community on Calle 13 (13th Street). Their stage names are a reference to how the brothers would identify themselves to the guards.
Residente is the main singer/songwriter of Calle 13. Visitante is the musician and occasional vocalist.
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Respeto a Nicaragua y a la lucha sandinista.
I respect Nicaragua and the Sandinista struggle.
Sandinistas were originally the followers and supporters of revolutionary leader Augusto César Sandino, who fought for Nicaragua's liberation from United States military occupation in the 1930s. It's a David and Goliath story in Latin American history. Through ambushes and guerrilla tactics, seizing weapons from their enemies, Sandino and his followers made the U.S. Marines leave Nicaragua. Storyteller Eduardo Galeano wrote a poem essay about the Sandonistas. I translated it in the translation notes of Juanes's "Destino" song because Juanes referenced an idea from it: la guerra de los tigres y los pájaros (the war of the tigers and the birds).
In current time, Sandinista also refers to the Sandinista National Liberation Front, a democratic socialist political party in Nicaraguas. I think Calle 13 is refering to the general meaning, not specifically the political party. The Sandonista struggle is a major chapter in Latin American history.
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Si le llega a la raya y te quemo en el Masaya...
If it reaches the line and I burn you at the Masaya...
Here, la raya (lit. the line) may be another drug reference. WordReference says one of the less common meanings of la raya is a drug dose and gives the following example:
Esnifó una raya de coca en el lavabo de la discoteca.
He sniffed a line of cocaine in the sink at the club.
El Masaya is a Nicaraguan volcano.
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Y que queda tu cuerpo picadito en picachos.
And let your body stay chopped up in little pieces.
Here, Calle 13 uses the word picachos in such a way that it sounds like a portmanteau of the prefix pico- (meaning a trillionth, so a really tiny amount) and cachitos (little bits). It gives the line alliteration and we still know what he means.
It is also a wordplay: picachos really means summits, and the previous lines named volcanoes.
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Quiero partirte los dedos de tu mano.
I want to break your fingers. [*lit. (meaning)]
I want to part the fingers of your hand. [*very literal (word-for-word)]
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Este hombre cuando habla no es en vano.
This man doesn’t speak in vain.
This man, when he speaks, it is not in vain. [*word-for-word]