Boda Negra [English translation]

Listen to the story I was once told

by the old graveddiger of the region.

It was about a lover who by ungodly luck

had his sweet beloved taken by Death.

Every night he went to the cemetery

to visit the tomb of his sweet beloved.

The townspeople secretly whispered

that he was a dead man who escaped the pit.

On a horrendous night he shattered to pieces

the abandoned marble tomb;

he dug the earth and carried in his arms

the rigid skeleton of his beloved.

And there in the sad and gloomy room,

he mourned under a feeble flame;

He sat beside her cold and rigid bones

and celebrated his wedding with his dead beloved.

He tied her bare bones with ribbons;

her rigid skull he crowned with flowers,

he covered her decaying mouth with kisses,

and proclaimed his love to her with a smile.

He took his bride to their soft wedding bed,

lying next to her, in love;

and he remained asleep forever

while embracing her rigid skeleton.

And he remained asleep forever

while embracing her rigid skeleton.

• Artist:Óscar Chávez