Cambalache [English translation]

That the world was and will be a piece of trash

I already know...

In 506

and in 2000 as well!

That there have always been thieves,

Machiavellis1 and swindlers,

People both happy and bitter,

Barons and hypocrites.

But that the 20th century

Is an exhibition

Of insolent wickedness

No one will deny.

We spend our lives wallowing around in filth

And in the same mire

We've all dirtied our hands.

Today it seems it's all the same

Whether you're an honest man or a traitor,

ignoramus, sage, pickpocket,

philanthropist or con artist!

Everything's the same! Nothing is better!

A moron is the same

As a great professor!

There are no failures, nor even a grade scale

The immoral have made us all the same.

If one lives as an impostor

And another robs in his ambition,

It makes no difference if you're a priest,

Mattress-maker, the King of Clubs2,

Opportunist or deadbeat.

What a lack of respect,

What an affront to reason!

Anybody is a nobleman!

Anybody is a thief!

Mixed up with Stavisky3 is Don Bosco4

And "La Mignon"5

Don Chio6 and Napoleon7,

Carnera8 and San Martín9,

Just like the tasteless window display

Of a junk shop

Life has been all mixed up

And wounded by a saber without rivets.10

You see the Bible weeping

Against a water heater.11

Twentieth century junk shop,

Problematic and feverish!

The baby who doesn't cry doesn't get to nurse12

And the man who doesn't steal is an idiot.

Just go for it! Go ahead, come on!

Cause there in the furnace

We're going to find ourselves!

Don't think anymore

Sit down on the sidelines

Cause nobody cares

If you were born honorable.

He's just the same, he who labors

Night and day, like an ox,

As he who lives off of others,

As he who kills, as he who heals,

Or is outside of the law.

1. Meaning people like Niccolo Machiavelli, a philosopher whose name has become synonymous with unscrupulous politics2. As in the playing card3. A professional scammer known for the Stavisky Affair, a financial scandal in France in 19344. A 19th-century priest and educator5. Probably refers to a literary character named Mignon, a kidnapped girl who is forced to sing, dance and have fun in Goethe's novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, and in the 19th-century opera Mignon based on the novel6. The nickname of Juan Galiffi, a gangster in Argentina in the early 20th century7. Napoleon Bonaparte, military leader and Emperor of the French from 1804-18148. Italian boxer crowned world champion in 19339. General who led parts of South America in war of independence from Spain and is regarded as a national hero10. The name, translated literally, for a wire hook used as a kind of toilet paper holder in Argentina in the early 20th century.11. This famous line both contrasts the divine and mundane, and also refers to the irreverent practice by some Argentinian Catholics in the early 20th century of tearing pages from Protestant Bibles and using them as toilet paper. The toilet paper holder referred to in the line above was often located next to the water heater. See https://www.taringa.net/+ciencia_educacion/en-argentina-se-usaban-las-bi... for details.12. A Spanish proverb similar to "The squeaky wheel gets the grease" - both meaning that those who make the most noise are the most likely to get their problems addressed