This is a very-hard-to-translate song... With that said, I have to warn this is a guerilla translation, done on the spot, yes, I know it is irresponsible but... hmm... I don't really care.
You may find the song at your nearest P2P program or music store... So that you can listen to how awesomely gruesome this song is. And catchy. Its not the best song of the band, but it stands out, at least to me.
The song was written by Mexican band: Café Tacuba, pretty much and probably (redundant?) the best punk-rock-alternative-folkloric band ever in the history of Mexico and Latin America, famous for reinventing themselves often and for their very original lyrics and sounds.
But first, some language barriers...
The song is called:
Alarmala de tos.
"Alarmala" can mean many things, if it had an accent (alármala) it would translate into "alarm her". But it doesn't have it. So it might be a weird (but totally possible) conjugation that means: "he/she alarmed her". The whole song uses that weird conjugation so... Although the correct conjugation would be "alarmola". So I don't know.
Then it says: "de tos", which is "of the cough". Yes, I was like that too: "he/she alarmed her of the cough"? What the hell? Something like "she warned her of a disease"? But it doesn't make sense in the song. On the other hand: "tos" can also be short for "todos" which is "all". So that would say: "alarmed her of all"; "all" meaning "a lot of people". That one translation would be the best, altho I will use it "alarm her of all" because in the present tense it just makes more sense as compared to the rest of the song. If you say "alarmed her" it implies someone did warn her of something but the song doesn't say...
No further ado
Alarmala de Tos/Alarm her of all
por Café Tacuba
La Lola paciente mendigaba,/The Lola patiently bummed
sufría, su jefe la obligaba,/she suffered, her father made her,
con ella sacaba buena lana./he gets good money with her,
La pobre era jorobada./The poor girl had a hump.
Su madre le metía el talón,/Her mother stepped on her,
era perversa y de mal corazón./she was mean, and cold harted.
Su hermano vivia en el reventón,/Her brother lived his life to party
él era el filo, amante de un panzón./he was the lover of some fat panzy.
Ese día, pasaba normalmente,/That day was passing normally
cuando su padre atacola de repente,/when her father attacked her unexpectedly
violola con un deseo demente,/he raped her with a demential desire
y ella quizo morirse en ese instante./and she wanted to die in that instant.
Mató a su padre cuando este la seguía,/She killed her father when he followed her
mientras su madre con su hermano le ponía,/while her mother put her brother against her
pensó que ayuda jamás encontraría,/she thought that help would never find her
hasta que al fin, halló un policía./until at last, she found a police man.
Alarma, alarmala de tos,/Alarm, alarm her of all
uno, dos, tres, /one, two, three
patada y cos. /a kick and more*
(X2)
La Lola su historia lloró,/The Lola her story moaned
auxilio al "tira" imploró,/help to the cop she groaned
el "azul" sonriendo la miró.../the "blue" watched and smiled...
¿qué creen que fue lo que pasooo?/what do you think happened neeeext?
Siguiola, jalola, atacola, golpeola, pateola, escupiola, tirola, violola /He followed, he pulled, he attacked, he punched, he kicked, he spat, he threw, he raped her.(X2)
Siguiola, jalola, atacola, golpeola, pateola, escupiola, tirola, matolaaaa.../He followed, he pulled, he attaked, he punched, he kicked, he spat, he threw, he killed heeeer...
Con una pistola./With a pistol.
Alarma, alarmala de tos/Alarm, alarm her of all
uno, dos, tres,/one, two, three
patada y cos./a kick and more*
(x4)
Alarma.
Alarma.
Alarma.
Alarma.
Alarma.
Alarma.
Alarma.
Alarma...
Alarma.
*"cos", I don't know what the hell "cos" means, and I couldn't find it in the dictionary, so it must be short for an odd Mexican word that I don't know, if anybody knows, please enligthen me. And again, that chorus is what I chose it to mean, or what I can understand or draw from it... if you have info on this, again: turn my brain-lights on.
On another note, I'm proud of me. I translated that and it even rhymes a bit in English.
Do you think that song is horrible? Perfect for Halloween? I think it is. It is also funny and peculiar to find it in a song. You should find it and hear it. If you do, and if you like it, and you would like more, then you should also find: "Las Flores", a simple, short, funny, beautiful, and very comprehensible song (unlike the one above), that one is my favorite yet. I might post, and translate it one day.
Ok, I'll see you.
Don't eat too much candy, it gives you cavities and makes you fat.
For now...
Happy Hallowennie.
Joel.
12 comments:
Alarmala is a conjunction of the word alarma and lola, just like all the other words have it, violola, suguiola... etc. it's done to add some effect to the song
Also, important detail...the song wasn't written by Cafe Tacuba...it's an original by Botellita de Jerez, from 1984...The Tacubos made their own version of it, and it actually was a bigger hit than the original, mostly because Botellita was from a time when rock in spanish was still way underground, compared to the time during which Cafe Tacuba became famous.
I was looking back over old comments of mine around the blogosphere, and found this one and actually read your translation (which I skipped the first time through a couple of months back) and...it's all out of wack in a few of places :)
I'm mexican, and I can understand why you mistranslated some stuff...idioms can be a bitch.
Starting from the title of the song, Alarmala de Tos...Alarmala is a pun :) Alarmala can mean to put a bell or an alarm on somebody female. But it's also an idiom for "to make" or "to create".
On the other hand, de tos is not a contraction of todos..."armala de tos" means to create a problem, to start a problem...so...the title of the song is more along the lines of "warn her of trouble she's creating or having" than anything else...but like most idioms, it's hard to translate.
The line "su madre le metia al talon" has nothing to do with kicks..."meterle al talon" or "hacerle al talon" is an idiom for prostitution...so...the line says that her mom was a prostitute.
The line "el era filo, amante de un panzon" is actually "el era lilo, amante de un panzon" and means "he was gay, lover of a fat guy".
The line "mientras su madre, con su hermano le ponia" would be something along the lines of "while her mother was doing it with her brother", doing it with the meaning of having sex.
On the next paragraph, it's more like "she thought that she'd never find help"..it's a poetic license thing with the verbs there.
The chorus...the translation is the same as on the title above.
"ayuda al tira imploro" is "for help to the cop she begged"
As for the "patada y coz"...patada and coz both mean kick...usually, a coz is a kick from an animal like a horse or a cow, but it's also used for when somebody kicks backwards.
I've recently rediscovered the album Avalancha de Exitos (such a wonderfully arrogant title) that contains this song. I don't speak Spanish, but thought I understood the gist of it. In fact, I bought the album after hearing a National Public Radio story from long ago, from which I remember that they positioned Alarmala de Tos as being about a street fight, the title translating into something like "clearing your throat," which was slang for challenging someone to a fight. I recently started looking in vain for a decent translation (Babblefish was completely useless). So thank you for this excellent comment string. Suffice it to say that I had not understood the meaning until now....
wow, this post has generated some awesome comments over the months. Its been over a year and a half since I wrote this and im so glad.
Thanks to Vox for putting me up to date about who wrote the song originally.
And to Luis Garza, thanks a LOT for correcting my attempt to translate this song. I mean, I pretty much understood what you clarified before you actually clarified it, although there are things I would have never been able to work out. Like: "su madre con su hermano le ponía", uff, para nada se me ocurrió that it was about having sex. "Coz", i also learned from you. ANd the actual meaning of "alarmala de tos", great. Thank you really.
And to the last anonymous comment, well, im glad that you have found what you were looking for. Its a downer, tho, that youre anonymous and i wont recongnize you if you leave more comments somewhere else... but hey, I'm always up to translate whatever, specially songs. leave a comment anytime.
Wow, GRACIAS Luis Garza - I was really having trouble translating this as well - I got so frustrated that I googled "Alarmala de tos" english translation and found this!
And to Joel - thank you for spreading Cafe Tacuba to the world, with an English translation. It's really an incredible song.
The whole song, from the title itself, is a satyre of tabloid journalism. The name itself alludes to "Alarma!", which is a popular supermarket tabloid in Mexico that covers almost exclusively shocking (and often false or exaggerated) news. The frequent use of the "ola" conjuction is also a reference to the style in which these papers are written (usually with questionable, uncommon or downright awful grammar).
"armala de tos" is pretty much what Garza pointed out, except the connotation here is blowing something out of proportion for the sake of sensationalisim.
Also, sorry for the double post, but if you think those are good lyrics, I think you'd be interested in "Locomotora", also by Café Tacuba.
Hi, I'm also mexican, but my parents, both of them spoke English, so it is actually my first tongue. I think a closer translation to this would be the Following:
Lola patiently begged
she suffered her father made her do it
He made good money out of her
Poor girl, she was constantly bothered
Her mother was into prostitution
she was evil and had a mean heart
her brother was a party animal
he was a gay guy, lover of a fat man
That day was really something normal
all of a sudden, her father attacked her
he raped her with a demential desire
and she wanted, to die right in that moment
She killed her father while he was following her
Meanwhile her mother, was having sex with her brother
She thought she would never find help
until, finally she found a police man
Alarm!!
Make a big fuss about it
("Armala de tos" is slang for "Make a big fuss about it". There is a play on words here, prepending "Al" to continue the reference to the tabloid)
one, two, three, a kick and a stomp
(The line above this, is a reference to a traditional mexican game, similar to leap frog. When the third player jumped over de bent over guy, he had to shout this line, kick him in the butt and stomp him hard on the back by sitting on him)
Lola told her story crying
and for help, she finally asked
the policeman smiling looked at her
what do you think happened next?
He followed her, grabed her, attacked her, hit her, droped her, kicked her, raped her, killed her.... with a gun
and the chourus repeats again. I think this is a closer translation of the song. The verb conjugations are not really incorrect nor is it poetic license, is a contraction we sometimes use. we say "golpeolo" for "hit him" and "golpeola" for "hit her" instead of the longer "lo golpeo" and "la golpeo".
Wow Wow Wow. Más y mejores traducciones han aparecido, muchas gracias. Con el esfuerzo de todos, pues ya podremos sacar una traducción super recontra cercana y con más referencias, menos errores y por supuesto con algo de rima en inglés pa que no la pierda, esperen otro post!
Im russian. I learn spanish and found this band (Cafe Tacuba) very nice to listen. First songs what i heard was Eres and Las Flores. So you can image what I felt, when I was translating this song...
And because I didnt find any russian translate I did it in english. Thanks for all very much! You did it so easy to understand.
Song is realy serious and it is bold step to resing it.
Like somebody removed rose-coloured glasses and I remembered that there is much evil in the world. Huh.. God save us...
one more comment, which mario alluded to - this song is playing on a popular Mexican tabloid called Alarma! which regularly ran stories like the one in the song. See http://nuevoalarma.com.mx/ for the official site and you can even see quotes from this song on their website (http://nuevoalarma.com.mx/alarmaprincipal.html). For more on the magazine, see http://inciclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/El_Alarma!. Just for a little context to the song . . .
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