El Cafè Antic [English translation]

At the Ancient Cafe, when the beer

Awakens the dreams for simple people,

We climb the vines with the stars

And we make love with them humble.

She has eyes filled with poetry,

Your body is like a cherry tree in bloom;

Some men are courting Mary

While I win while playing with you at parchis.

But in Bosnia flowers don't blossom anymore,

While in here it's May and Serge is singing...

The wind weeps and our hearts bleed

Due to the great horror that separates us!

Europe is growing on top of your dead countrymen,

Shamelessly bartering;

But the coldness of this puppet show

Shall never reach our cafe.

At the Ancient Cafe, the smoke carries away

Fears and anguish deep into the night

While, with the rhythm of conversations

The snooker balls roll away.

And, when the moon over the chapel of Saint Anthony

Looks for her own place among the cypress trees,

It seems that the entire town realizes

That she's up there only for them...

But in Rio de Janeiro they are still killing children

And someone has paid for every bullet:

The powerful buy their own lives

By murdering abject poverty!

The night expands her sorrowful trap

Over the homeless children who tremble...

Faces that search in the darkness

Looking for the love that they can't find anywhere.

At the Ancient Cafe, time is resting

And people's fingers don't count it anxiously,

Because the cards on the table,

Create a pattern that's far too pretty.

The time to come when tenderness

From everyone, shall be our pillow;

Joining dreams with stars,

We shall reminisce about the Ancient Cafe...