Tajo a Tajo (Milonga)
Ya no suenan las bordonas
De mi guitarra como antes
Y no cantan arrogantes
Se me han vuelto rezongonas
Perezosas y sobonas
No obedecen a mi mando
Y al querer, de vez en cuando
Hacerlas sonar altivas
Vibran tristes, emotivas
Como almas que están penando
De mi rancho los horcones
De aburridos se han ladeao
Y al techo lo han deslomao
Pechando los ventarrones
Del tiempo los samarreones
Lo han rajao en las esquinas
Y al cercao de sina-sina
Con que rodeaba la casa
Cualquiera bicho lo pasa
Porque ya ni tiene espinas
Todo el campo se ha rendido
Al rigor del abrojal
Y al criollo viscacheral
En harnero ha convertido
La hacienda, claro, se ha ido
Huyendo de esos rigores
Ya los pájaros cantores
No se arriman a los talas
Y aura nacen luces malas
Donde antes nacieran flores
Lo que era campo florido
Y trebolar perfumao
Lo que era lindo recao
Del paisano presumido
El rancho que era mi nido
Donde viví mis amores
Todo ha cáido a los rigores
Del tiempo que, ¡tajo a tajo!
Me va arriando cuesta abajo
Para amargar mis dolores
Cut by Cut (Milonga)
No longer do the bass strings
Of my guitar sound like before
And they don't sing arrogantly
They have become grumpy
Lazy and pampered
They don't obey my command
And when I try, from time to time
To make them sound proud
They vibrate sadly, emotive
Like souls that are suffering
The poles of my ranch
Have leaned out of boredom
And they have worn out the roof
Pushing against the gusts
The rough weather has torn it apart
In the corners
And the fence of thorns
That surrounded the house
Any critter can pass through it
Because it no longer has thorns
The whole countryside has surrendered
To the harshness of the thistle field
And has turned the cowboy's land
Into a sieve
The livestock, of course, has gone
Fleeing from those hardships
The singing birds
No longer come near the talas
And now bad omens are born
Where flowers used to bloom
What was once a flowery field
And a perfumed clover
What was a beautiful herd
Of the proud countryman
The ranch that was my nest
Where I lived my loves
Everything has succumbed to the hardships
Of time that, cut by cut!
Is dragging me downhill
To embitter my pains