La saeta [English translation]

A well-known1 voice said:

Who will lend me a ladder

to climb the wood

to remove the nails

from Jesus of Nazareth?

Oh, the saeta2, the chant

to Christ of the gypsies,

always with blood on their hands,

always from removing nails

Chant of the Andalusian town

where every spring

they ask for ladders

to climb the cross

Song of my homeland

that tosses flowers

to the Jesus of agony

and is the faith of my elders

Oh, you are not my singer?

I can't sing, nor want to

To this Jesus of the cross,

but to He who walked in the sea...

1. popular, or well-known & respected in his pueblo2. a holy song sung at processions

during Holy Week

• Artist:Joan Manuel Serrat
• Album:Dedicado a Antonio Machado, poeta