El hijo ingrato [English translation]

Mischievous son, in taverns

you waste your life in perdition,

you don't understand that you're to blame

for your poor mother who cries in affliction.

You don't care for your poor little mother1

with white in her hair2 who suffers for you,

you don't understand that she loves you so much,

that you are ungrateful and you make her suffer.

You don't know that your good mother3

there by the church - in her solitude

I've seen her early in the morning on the street

with her hand extended, asking for charity.

With deeply saddening words she told me

"May my son never come to know of the sad truth,

I only want God to bless him,

should my life end, it will be gone soon"

The words spoken by a mother

will be unforgettable to the heart,

and songs who are so ungrateful

end up drunk in perdition.

Go on, run and look for your mother,

for God will punish you for your vileness,

you don't understand that "later" is too late

and that your good mother you will miss.

1. poor little old lady2. lit. 'with her good/blessed white hairs' meaning that she has earned them from worrying/old age but is said as a complement3. lit. 'saintly mother'