La Puerta de Alcalá [English translation]

I walk next to my shadow along the avenue

My steps get lost among so many people

I am looking for a door, an exit for the past and present to live together

Suddenly I stop. Someone is looking at me.

I turn my eyes towards it, I find it

And there it is, there it is, there it is,

watching time go by, la Puerta de Alcalá 1

One cold morning Charles III,

Took off his hat with a distinguished air

Very slowly he got off from his horse

With a deep voice he told his footman

There's la Puerta de Alcalá

There it is, there it is

Watching time go by, la Puerta de Alcalá

Spearmen with military coats

Loud-mouthed monarchs from other lands

That come along, inventing wars

Militias that resist under the cry, "They shall not pass."

And the eternal dream comes the same way it goes

And there it is, there it is, la Puerta de Alcalá

There it is, there it is, seeing time go by, la Puerta de Alcalá

All tyrants embrace each other like brothers

They show off their bald heads to the people

Hordes of fraudsters

Two-hundred students start the riots

It's the 1960s now

And there it is, there it is, la Puerta de Alcalá

There it is, there it is watching time go by, la Puerta de Alcalá

A transvestite who lost his way

A quarrelsome police officer

Dyed hair, piercings on their skins

Insurgent rockers, obliging and modern

Spaced-out poets, winds of freedom

And there it is, la Puerta de Alcalá

There it is, there it is watching time go by, la Puerta de Alcalá

I look at it in the face, I get lots in its eyes

Its arches keep an eye on me, its shadow walks with me

I'm not trying to hide; nobody can deceive it

All of life goes through its stare

Look at it, look at it, look at it, look at it, look at it

La Puerta de Alcalá, look at it, look at it , look at it, look at it

1. Madrid landmark monument, a late Eighteenth Century gate with arches.