(YouTube link)
Cançó de carrer (“Street Song”), another of Ramon Muntaner’s most famous songs, published in 1975 with the lyrics of a poem by Pere Quart (1899-1986).
The first part of this poem (corresponding to the slower part of the song) talks about the alienation in people’s lives and the need to break out of it, and the second half (the more upbeat part) is a cry to unite and change this system.
Here’s the lyrics in Catalan and translation to English:
Quan tindré cinquanta anys no vull ser com el pare, cansat i sense fer renec o riallada, treball embrutidor, futbol cada diumenge, el tuti al cul d'un bar, tabac de vuit pessetes.
When I’ll be 50 years old, I don’t want to be like my father, tired and faithless letting out any blasphemy or laugh, a dirtying job, football every Sunday, playing cards at some bar, 8 pessetas [currency of the time] tobacco.
La televisió que ofega la paraula; i banys en un mar brut quan vénen les vacances. La mare un escarràs, la plaça i la neteja. I els meus germans petits, escoles de mals mestres.
The TV that drowns the word; and bathes on a dirty sea when the holidays come. Mother working day and night, the square and the cleaning. And my little siblings, to schools with bad teachers.
Quina buidor! Potser només viuen de veres els qui moren matant al carrer o a la guerra.
What an emptiness! Maybe only those who die killing on the street or at war live for real.
Apòstols i cabdills: llenceu el crit d'alarma! Savis, tècnics, obrers forceu les vostres màquines. Genis de totes arts embelliu la croada.
Apostles and chiefs: shout the alarm signal! Wise ones, technicians, workers force your machines. Geniuses of all the arts embellish the crusade.
Homes, dones, infants, de tota llengua i raça i els mísers i els vençuts ramada innumerable, espereu i engrossiu el clam que ens agermana.
Men, women, children, of all languages and races and the wretched and the beaten countless herd, wait and grow the clamour that makes us brothers.
Encara hi som a temps, encara, encara, encara. Destruirem un món estúpid i sense ànima. Cavem els fonaments d’una vida més alta.
We still have time, still, still, still. We’ll destroy a stupid and soul-less world. Let’s dig the foundations of a higher life.
