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English
Translation
Here comes Death Scything
Here comes Death scything
She takes the young, also the old
Death comes indiscriminately taking*
Not a single passenger escapes her.**
Not even the prayer escapes her
Not the drunk for being a drinker
Not the assassin for being a killer
We all will have to go to the graveyard.
Here comes Death scything
She takes the young, also the old
Death comes indiscriminately taking
Not a single passenger escapes her.
Bishops die, the prophets die
Vicars and confessors die
They cannot even be cured by the doctors
The ampules are useless
Singers die, the poets die.
The rich and the peasant die
She also takes with her the saddler
And the carpenter with certain advantage
For he himself makes his own box***
Here comes Death scything
She takes the young, also the old
Death comes indiscriminately taking
Not a single passenger escapes her.
Death has been such a killer
That she carries with her the labourer,
The married person dies, the single one dies
Christians of high rank die,
Before she comes, let us drink beer
To the grave we go marching
We go marching without hesitation,
Very well tucked in a box
Being carried by four people****
theresnocertainty✕
Comments
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About translator
First, it has to be pointed out that in Spanish death is a female figure, as opposed to the the grim ripper in the Anglo-Saxon culture who is a male figure. She is usually portrayed as a woman with a scythe on one hand and an hourglass on the other.
*Echar parejo: lit. "To throw evenly, to grab evenly" meaning to throw/grab something without really caring as to what is being thrown/taken.
**In Spanish, life is a vessel into which people get in and out, we are merely passengers who, at some point will have to get off the "vessel of life" and this vessel will continue its path as usual, as if we had never been there. Hence the popular phrase "somos pasajeros de esta vida" ( we are passengers in this life).
***Commonly in Spanish, people tend to call a coffin "a box" the actual term for coffin in Spanish is "ataud" or "feretro".
****In many countries of Latin America people still have the custom of carrying the coffin of the deceased from his house all the way to the graveyard, usually four people close to de deceased carry the coffin, sometimes family members take turns and in some cases when there's no one able or willing, people are hired to do it.
⭐️Thanks to Robert West for proof reading this translation.