El caso de la rubia platino [English translation]

I was given a check for seven hundred

Plus expenses and another five hundred to it

In casino chips

My last train was arriving with delay

So I decided to take up the case

Of the platinum blonde

I was a license-free private investigator

Fired from the police operation unit for

Detention, extortion and profligate conduct

I was as a good ex-cop

In service of a big fish who knew

How to cover up the backs

Not a single bitch is worth that money

Thought I leaving my new hat in the cloakroom

She sang in a nothing special manner but moved

Her butts with a swing that melted the ice in glasses

When at last she left the private lounge

I felt the bells of the past

Call to mourning.

The last time I had heard this tune

Was when I was sentenced to three years and a day

Plus VAT* in La Modelo Prison**

Playing Black Jack and being a tough one

When you lack cash

Is like trying to look into your future

With just a flash-light.

No wonder

They beware of me in the casinos

I was offered ten grand*** for the case

Of the platinum blonde

The kisses you get from bad girls

Turn out to be more expensive

When they are given for free

And smell of failure

But the croupier gave me out good cards

And the platinum blonde was a dyed brunette

And the case was a great one.

In a bistro in the port of Marceille

We lingered over a bottle of port wine

And then another one

Those who priced your head

Said I to her, exaggerating her beauty,

Have underrated you

I might have been falling in love

Because before the cafe I had changed my orders

The hotel and the hat

My old man gave us a twin-bedded room

Pretending that the lady was a lady

And his son was a gentleman

I don't at all suffer, members of the Jury,

from temporary mental aberration,

As my lawyer alleges

I shot through the heart I loved

With premeditation, treachery

And more shame than glory

Playing Black Jack and being a tough one

When you lack cash

Is like trying to look into your future

With just a flash-light.

No wonder

They beware of me in the casinos

I was offered ten grand for following the steps

Of the platinum blonde

To become again somebody in this ambiance

I needed a couple of good clients

Something for my vice and a decent office

You can't feed yourself on Chinatown hookers

Not every Monday they order me the case

Of the platinum blonde

Not to be a dead body on a tram

Besides being queer streetwise

One must know that petticoats are a lottery.

My Aladdin's lamp shone with neon lights

I was offered ten grand

For the case of the platinum blonde

• Artist:Joaquin Sabina
• Album:19 días y 500 noches