Los olvidados [English translation]

Los Olvidados

forsaken by men and God alike

Los Olvidados

have lost the stars in their eyes.

Their only kingdom is the street pavement

and their ghosts long before them went barefoot

barefoot

Los Olvidados

are burning with fever even in the rain

Los Olvidados

play only dangerous games,

their heart and hands are filled with rage.

They are ageless.

Their night will see no dawn1.

Los Olvidados

even if they are highway beggars2

Los Olvidados

they spread their arms without reaching out their hands,

and though they rob you, they have been robbed too,

it's a tooth for an eye3 and they have been robbed from their life.

Robbed from their life.

Los Olvidados

as they smoke some blue grass

Los Olvidados

it's to pretend they are happy.

They despise you if you brush their cheek,

a cheek so diry and gray you could fall on your knees.

Los Olvidados

small Pierrots fallen from the sky

Los Olvidados

have no friend but the Sun.

They stare at you, prouder than a king could be

and beneath their rags their heart is so kind

so kind

Los Olvidados

have springs that look like the end of autumn

Los Olvidados

are nobody's children

Los Olvidados

lost in waste grounds4

Los Olvidados

know only too well they were born for nothing

Los Olvidados

forsaken by men and God alike

Los Olvidados

have lost the stars in their eyes.

Los Olvidados

are burning with fever even in the rain

Los Olvidados

1. "sans lendemains" means "without a future"2. "bandit de grand chemin" would be "highwayman". "mendiant de grand chemin" is an invented expression.3. a pun on "an eye for an eye". Here it means "they will bite you if you look at them sideways"4. in "terrain vague", "vague" means "of unclear purpose", but "vague" can also mean "wave".

The pun reads literally as "between the waves of a ground"