Music for a Sunday: Pull till the rope breaks

If you’ve ever seen The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, you’ve probably already heard this:

It was one of Chavecito’s favorite songs, and it comes courtesy of Venezuela’s greatest folk singer. Here’s a translation of the lyrics:

Pull till the rope breaks
and when someone hits you,
just make a note of it.

Pull, pull, pull, till the rope breaks
If you’re in the last quarter,
tomorrow there will be a new moon.

Pull so that the bad times soon pass
and just as in a game of dominoes,
the onlookers will be speechless.

Pull, pull, pull till the rope breaks
Our free country
will be a contented heifer

Pull, pull, pull till the rope breaks
ay, ay, ay, it breaks, it breaks

Pull so that the people are a dry hide
If you step on one side of it
the other will rise up
they have a skin blooming with hope
for something

Pull, pull, pull till the rope breaks
ay, ay, ay, it breaks, it breaks

The people are not to blame
if they are once decived, and say that the fawn
will die meekly in summer
when there’s not much water
and the mountaintop is naked
when there’s not much water
Ay, ay, ay, naked
naked, naked

If you take the venom away from the rattlesnake
even though it rattles
it stops being a rattlesnake

Pull, pull, pull till the rope breaks
ay, ay, ay, it breaks, it breaks

If you take the venom away from the rattlesnake
even though it rattles
it stops being a rattlesnake

Pull, pull, pull till the rope breaks
ay, ay, ay, it breaks, it breaks

Translation mine. (Hopefully it’s right; Alí Primera is a tricky wordsmith, as well as a master of odd rhythms.)