"Tren al Sur"

Sometimes a song hits you at the perfect point in your life and it goes from being a good song to a great one, a marker that serves as a landmark in your memories and reflections. Los Prisioneros had one in the early nineties right as I was graduating from High School and leaving EVERYTHING behind to go on to a new stage in life. It is a song about going back, recollecting, and about a land—or better a whole world—that I still love to this day.

As Chile has played a dark horse role in the World Cup so far this year, I find myself reminiscing a bit.

Here is the text, followed by a looser translation:

Siete y media en la mañana
Mi asiento toca la ventana
Estación central, segundo carro
Del ferrocarril que me llevará al sur
Ya estas fierros van andando
Y mi corazón esta saltando
Porque me llevan a las tierras
Donde al fin podré de nuevo
Respirar adentro y hondo,
Alegre hasta el corazón, A ha ha!

Y no me digas ¡pobre!
Por ir viajando así
No ves que estoy contento
No ves que voy feliz

Dos y media en la mañana
El olor se mete en la ventana
Son flores y mis animales, que me dicen:
Bienvenido al sur
Yo recuerdo a mi papito
Y no me importa estar solito
Porque me llevan a las tierras
Donde al fin podré de nuevo
Respirar adentro y hondo
Alegre hasta el corazón (x2)

Seven thirty in the morning
My seat is by the window
Central Station, second car
Of the train that will take me south
Now these rails are moving
And my heart is jumping
Because they carry me to the land
Where I will finally be able anew
To Breath in deep
Happy to the core

And don’t pity me
Traveling this way
Don’t you see my contentment?
Don’t you see that I am happy?

Two thirty in the morning
The smells come in the window
They are flowers and my animals that tell me:
“Welcome to the south.”
I remember my daddy
And I don’t mind being alone
Because they carry me to the land…