Translating is always betraying. I'm taking the title from an old listening series because the death of John Prine MUST not go unnoticed. At least here!
Sam Stone - John Prine I translated a bit hastily, perhaps there are some imperfections, but even my clumsiness can't tarnish the BEAUTY that exists here. A child talking about his father who returned from Vietnam and became a junkie.....
SAM STONE
Daddy has a hole in his arm
Sam Stone came home to his wife and kids
He fought in the war overseas
And that war shattered his brain
Leaving him with a nice pile of shrapnel in his knee.
Morphine helped ease his pain
So his brain turned to mush
But he found all the confidence he was missing
He returned with a medal pinned to his chest and a monkey on his shoulder.
Daddy has a hole in his arm that swallows up all his money
Jesus Christ died for nothing, I guess.
But kids understand better than grown-ups
Don't stop counting the years
Beautiful songs never last long if the radio is broken.
And so, the glorious homecoming of Sam Stone didn't last long,
He went to work spending every last dime
And so Sam started stealing when he felt dry
And then a hundred bucks at a time without overtime
And the gold rattled in his veins
Like a thousand trains on the railroad
And it made him feel good whenever he wanted
While his kids went around in clothes handed down by others.
Daddy has a hole in his arm that swallows up all his money
Jesus Christ died for nothing, I guess.
But kids understand better than grown-ups
Don't stop counting the years
Beautiful songs never last long if the radio is broken.
Sam Stone was alone when he took the last pear
Climbing the walls while sitting in a chair.
While a radio played the last song he had requested
And the room already smelled of death with an overdose hanging in the air
Because life was no longer fun and there was nothing else to do
But trade the house he bought with the veteran's benefit
For a flag-draped coffin on a local “hero's hill.”
Daddy has a hole in his arm that swallows up all his money
Jesus Christ died for nothing, I guess.
But kids understand better than grown-ups
Don't stop counting the years
Beautiful songs never last long if the radio is broken.
@[Alfredo]