Me da pena confesarlo

Español · Underlined words are lunfardo: tap one for its meaning.

Nace el hombre en este mundo remanyao por el destino y prosigue su camino muy confiado del rigor, sin pensar que la inclemencia de la vida sin amor va enredando su existencia en los tientos del dolor. Pero llega y un momento se da cuenta de su suerte y se amarga hasta la muerte sin tener ya salvación, pues comprende que la vida fue tan solo un metejón al perder la fe querida de su pobre corazón. Me da pena confesarlo, pero es triste ¡qué canejo! el venirse tan abajo, derrotado y para viejo. No es de hombre lamentarse pero al ver cómo me alejo, sin poderlo remediar yo lloro sin querer llorar. Si no fuera que el recuerdo de mi madre tan querida me acollara en esta vida con sentida devoción, no era yo quien aguantaba esta triste situación, ni el que así contemplaba sin abrirse el corazón. Pero hay cosas, compañero, que ninguno las comprende: uno a veces se defiende del dolor para vivir, como aquel haciendo alarde del coraje en el sufrir no se mata de cobarde por temor de no morir.

English · machine translation

A man is born into this world already well marked by destiny and carries on down his road very trusting in its hardness, never thinking that the harshness of a life without love goes tangling his existence in the thongs of pain. But there comes a moment when he realizes his fate and he turns bitter till death with no salvation now, for he understands that life was only an infatuation on losing the beloved faith of his poor heart. It shames me to confess it, but it's sad, damn it all, to come down so low, defeated and getting on in years. It isn't manly to complain but seeing how far I've drifted, with no way to put it right I weep without wanting to weep. If it weren't that the memory of my beloved mother keeps me company in this life with a heartfelt devotion, I wouldn't be the one to bear this sorrowful situation, nor the one to look on like this without opening his heart. But there are things, companion, that nobody understands: sometimes a man defends himself from pain in order to live, like the man who makes a show of courage in his suffering and doesn't kill himself out of cowardice for fear of not dying.