| Nacho Vegas |

NACHO VEGAS | MUSIC BOXES DIFFICULT TO STOP

Lyrics by Nacho Vegas
Translation by Maika Barbera

ARCTIC NIGHTS (NOCHES ÁRTICAS)

To José Ramón Vélez

Today, again
we'll close our eyes
desiring with devotion
a new arctic night
and of the purest black
-not like darkness
but like ebony-.
So our lungs
drown in a dream
that poisons and heals.
Dreams of arctic nights
that poison and heal.
(Close your eyes. Listen in the darkness
how the music boxes echo
Try to stop them.)

N. V. FOR THE WORLD PEACE (N. V. POR LA PAZ MUNDIAL)

The conflict has just started
and they won't ask:
Are you ready?
Are you ready to go?

Hear greetings from heaven,
greetings from the End.
Today Bambino
and old Konstantino
drink and make love
(and we are here). (and here we are).

There is no world war,
there is no drug able
to finish with this obsession.
We'll see each other in the glory
and maybe there, we'll discover the song
that brings us peace.
Another battled is waged
and boredom is mortal.
This day
will be followed by a similar one.

And you, standing at the door,
asked me this:
-Where are we going?-
-Closer to the bottom-, I answered
(And, obviously, later I drowned
more and more.)

There is no world war
or chemical weapon able
to kill something so intense.
We will sing with the victims
a blues that sounds from here to eternity
and brings us light.

Another night
believing I'm Captain Ahab...

No, there is no world war,
no drug able
to kill all this pain.
We'll see each other in the glory
and maybe there, we'll discover the song
that brings us peace.

ALL OF THEM (TODOS ELLOS)

This is what she once said to me:
-How can a normal human being kill?-
But recently, when she is drunk, she threatens to kill me, and I know she is capable to do it.
And now I know she is gone
my voice is whispering it:
The way is not so long
and the pain not so slow.

And I came to ask for advice to the old fakir.
I said:-Show me the place where I have to sleep.-
He turned his back to talk
and in his wounds, suddenly, I found the truth.
And he said:-At war, to know how to be a good loser
is more important than peace and love.-

And I asked to the man at the
kiosk that looks to the sea.
Ask to the woman
that swears to be Lady Di.
Ask anybody,
that all of them will tell you:
-When you have finished
you'll have just started-.

And my love, at war,
knowing how to be a good loser
is more important
than peace or love.
Much more important
than peace or love.
And remember, my love,
under the sun
the way is not so long
and the pain not so slow.
So long the way,
so slow the pain.

THE WORLD CALM DOWN (EL MUNDO EN CALMA)

Yes, we can say
that, at least, I’m not in my right mind.
Sitting down here, lost in my life.
Sitting down here and still escaping from me.

Yes, you will agree
that this cannot be called life.
I move from bed to the kitchen
and I get lost in the way.

Maybe, I didn't make the right thing,
I could have made it worse,
but your message in the answering machine
still hits my temple
asking why I wasn't
where I had to be,
what were those good things
that made me forget you.
Was it really so good?
Was it really better?

Try to sleep today
and I promise that
I will get there
with the first sunbeams
and I won't wake you up,
I will want to contemplate your deep sleep
and so, check for once
that the world is calm.
And for once, find the world calm down.
For once, find the world calm down.

JUST WIND (SOLO VIENTO)

And I came inside a burning darkness.
And while I moved forward, there were so many people that I could not see anything else.

And know I understand
the sadness of knowing that there are more stars in the firmament.
And watching them passing by,
passing by like the wind.
Like the wind...

How well does this beige suit fit the bridegroom.
She will think she's a princess with it.

Like if it was a mistake
I always find around me
things that threaten to come back
at the end of the day,
to come back like the wind.
Like the wind...

And they say that good Miguel is now happy with his new family. And I will ask:-Happy, regarding what?- I know that I can find peace and harmony, but it won't be in this life. Not in this life.

Writing again my role
I hear the sound of a woman telling me:
-You can't keep on always being
just wind-.
To be just wind
just wind...

IN THE GARDEN OF THE HYPNOGOGIA

Tonight I notice her smell again,
today the sky darkens for me
and there she grows perfect.
You can see her shine
under the light of the stars
in her garden,
in the garden of the hypnogogia.
It is the garden where the soul dreams.

She becomes an obsession,
every nerve shakes in an erection
when I feel her sweat breath in my throat
and her warm voice whispering inside me:
-Come, fuck me,
come to me, I'm the hypnogogia.
Come to the garden where the soul dreams.-

Don't you see it? She offers her blessing to me
and her love of death.
Don't you understand that I'm not me anymore
when she gets into my blood and brings me to death?
Look for me there,
in the garden of the hypnogogia.

The fat man told us
how he came out from misery,
but one day they found him
electrocuted in his gold and ivory bathtub.
Some believe in war,
some others in paradise.
For my part, I just believe in her.
Look for me there,
in the garden of the hypnogogia.
in the garden of the perfect flower.

Don't you see it? She offers her blessing to me
and her love of death.
Don't you understand that I'm not me anymore
when she gets into my blood and brings me to death?
Look for me there,
in the garden of the hypnogogia.

In the garden of the hypnogogia
(in the garden where the soul dreams),
in the garden of the perfect flower
(in the garden where the body gets sick),
in the garden of the hypnogogia.

YOUR NEW HUMIDIFIER (TU NUEVO HUMIDIFICADOR)

It will be enough to program me
and I will obey.
It will be enough with one of your orders;
and I swear I will work.

I am like your dishwasher
and now I will do what you ask me for.

You will be able to make me stop
and make me start again.
You will be able to kick me,
you will be able to unplug me.

I am like your computer
and now I will do what you ask me for.
Like your new humidifier,
I will just do what you ask me for.

But when the last of them
goes to live to the
Country of the Old Junk
and leaves you here,
I will keep on serving you
the rest of my life.
The rest of my life.

THE SOLITUDE SQUARE (LA PLAZA DE LA SOLEDÁ)

When you get to the port, go up to the fishermen neighborhood. You leave on your left dirty waters under the sun. And on your head, the seagulls that will guide you scream, turning around. Just move forward a bit more, and maybe you'll hear me sing.

Who has stolen me the sun
since I can't feel its warmth today
and the clothes that covered my skin
have turned into nudity?

If you hear this, you are close to the Plaza de la Soledá.(Solitude Square)

You'll see and old man that will make you some signal. Don't pay attention to him; this could be a serious mistake. And on your head, the seagulls that will guide you keep on turning around. Cross the alley. Don't you hear my voice?

Who has stolen me the sun
since I can't feel its warmth today
and the clothes that covered my skin
have turned into nudity?

When you hear this, you'll have arrived to the Plaza de la Soledá.

Visit the Plaza de la Soledá in the Cimavilla Neighbourhod (Xixón)
and then take a drink in La Plaza bar.

BECAUSE OF DAMP (POR CULPA DE LA HUMEDAD)

When the judge asked
why she had to kill,
Mona, seriously, answered:
-It was the heat and the damp.-

They told me she waited
until the three o'clock nap.
An ashtray in one hand; the heart in her fist.
His skull sank like a ripe fruit.

Sitting in the lounge
with the body at her feet
she remembered that once she was
young, pretty and happy.
-There was a time when I
could have died for love.
There was a time when I would have died for love.-

Mona, shut up please.
Mona, you make me sick.
Ramona, come here
I'm gonna burst you.
And if there is nobody to blame, let's blame the damp.

She buried him in the garden
under a walnut's shadow,
right where her two cats
go to urinate.
-This life was meant to be some other but it went wrong.-

-There was a time when I
would have died for love.
There was a time where I would have died for love.-

Nobody wanted to know more.
They swore me it was that way.
She stayed looking outside
waiting for dusk.
And the moon took up the sun's place.

IN THE MORTAL THIRST

I'm a little bit drunk, here in The Mortal Thirst, when Dodo comes in. And I don't move from here, and I'll have to get to the conclusion that there's no one guiltier than me -and there won't be- on earth. And I start to beg like this:
For the things I feel and for the ones I hate to feel;
for my sick mind;
for my skull, it won't stop laughing;
for the new moons;
for the messed up things that turn around inside me;
for six years of sorrow
and for the things I don't dare to say;
forgiveness for my always cold feet;
for last night, and for the next one, and for the other as well;
forgiveness for the Big Nonsense;
for wanting to know and, above all, for not understanding...
Forgiveness.

And Dodo looks at me, and I hear him pray like this:
-Forgiveness for existing-.

And kindly, I offer a whisky to Dodo, and he tells me that even dogs are sad after ejaculating. Later, we go out arm in arm from The Moral thirst, and then I can swear that there's no one guiltier than me -and there won't be- on earth. And
for two thousand years of Christianity;
for daring to live on and breathe;
for the extremely gifted;
for the man with a big belly and for sexual liberation;
for the Italian circus;
for the old man that shakes a napkin when he talks
and swears blind that, in her,
he has solved the mystery of the Holy Trinity;
forgiveness for modern people;
because I am at risk of looking at me and lose my mind;
forgiveness, for God's sake!;
for the great decadence of a life begging for forgiveness;
forgiveness for the four elements;
for earth, water, fire and pollution;
forgiveness for all the moans;
for Dodo and, anyway, I beg you for this song...
Forgiveness.

And I look at your lips, and I hear you all beg
forgiveness for existing.

CD2

THE SALTPETER (EL SALITRE)

They say the storm took in;
let's try to sleep.
In our feet, iodine and bandages
remind us of the way.
And you want to know if when we wake up,
soaked to the bones,
something will have changed,
and I don't want to lie.

Getting here, what else can happen to us?
We can go and ask to the sea
so he can answer with roars,
so he tells us the truth.

And tell me, if the sun has come out and it's not for us,
so for whom?
Or if the wind doesn't howl for us,
so for whom?
How can I love you
if I am my own enemy?
And, how to start again
when there is so much from yesterday in me?

And now, tell me, what else can happen to us?
We can go and ask to the sea
so he can answer with roars,

so he tells us the truth.

And they can tell you that in love
there's always a loser,
and that in love
there's always a winner.
But listen to me, I was there
and I know there are just survivors.
Let them talk, I prefer to listen
to the matters of the sea.

Getting here, what else can happen to us?
We can go and ask to the sea
And now, tell me, what else can happen to us?
We can go and ask to the sea
so he can answer with roars,
and tells us the truth
and, much more important,
so we can move forward
under the same burning sun
with the judgements we still have to lose,
with the saltpeter stacked to our skin,
like Jonas in the insides of the big fish,
with seaweed and stones,
with all the water we swallow when we swim,
with the lies about I dared to swear.
I played to be bad and I fell flat with evil
I played to be bad and I fell flat with evil.
I hope Captain Ahab forgives me,
I hope he does.

They say the storm took in.

MARK SPITZ

I dusk and I rest again
in a grey cloud
smoking on silver
the terror that living gives.

And everything is fine by me
in this room.
I'll stop listening for today:
-Oh! What I called 'I' in me-.

I taste the damp
that rots in the walls
and I beg for asylum among humanity.
But no, I don't ask it as a favor
but for pity.

The sky burst into tears.

Terror settled down.
Blackness took place
as if the sun died.

The wise men now look for
a sunbeam.
They say they are hidden
near the Holy Cross.

I taste the damp
that rots in the walls
and I call for help to all mediocrity.
But I don't ask for it as a favor,
no, never as a favor,
but for pity.

I wanted to contain my sorrow
but they swam in alcohol
like Mark Spitz.
Today, the full moon
has decided to spit to the sun
and I just make out
a piece of song.

I dusk and I rest again
on a blue and grey cloud.
I smoke, silver by silver,
the fucking pain of living.

GANG-BANG

Near the 'Damm'
there are four whores that dance a waltz
behind the glass,
and the strong sweat from Berlin
can be felt
You are there, alone,
a very thin rain hits your face,
slips on your skin and at the same time
a poster lights up offering you
Freedom and Sordidness
all for a price that a modern man
is capable to pay
once that the night starts to walk.
Don't you see it? Your flesh is paler
Don't you see it? Your soul is grayer
If, at last, you don't loose your mind
you'll see there's just one solution:
¡Cas...tra...tion!

And all the things I did wrong
today conspire against me again
How have I got to this....
I don't know
so lucid and sinister?
but I just know that I don't know it.

And a man on a suit invites me to come in...
¡Gang-bang!

You see from your hotel
quiet waters like tin foil
and the wind drags the smell
of the treacherous brown dwarf.
You were the king,
with your scepter in your hand
and your eyes nailed in the people
you know you won't meet
even though you live a thousand years
and the sky weakens to your feet,
but her glance doesn't unstick from your trousers.
And you start walking through the city
and you cross a new channel.
You escape from the red and blue neon,
you look for something that smells different from love.

And if I lived once again,
would I be wrong again?
Yes, don't doubt about it,
right up until madness
and right up until pain.

And a man on a suit invites me to come...
¡Gang-bang!

STANISLAVSKY

I unveil myself as an actor,
offer an ovation to me.
No matter I do it right or wrong,
I promise to do it honestly.
Today I lighted up at dusk;
I'll just have to burn
until I put off
and later it will hurt to think of me like that
and there will be nobody here.

My apologies
for my sperm and my voice,
and I polish the masks
from where I'm able to talk to you,
and inside, I will look for
something similar to a god,
and I will be like a king
that forgets how to reign
and I'll still be king.

La, la, la...

I will live and die thousands of times under these lights
like a rebel human being that restrains crowds.
I look for pain in me and not for me in pain
and I start to ask how, when, where and why
I feel a wound
here that is bigger (La M)
but it has to become smaller (Re m).

La, la, la...

I do it right or wrong
you can save the ovation.
I have promised the truth
and I unveil as an actor.
And I try to make out evil,
my soul waits for a sign
the night is coming
and sticks needles
getting to the heart, once and again.

La, la, la...

THIRST (LA SED)

I walk down by the jetty
My throat is wrinkled
and the fatal obsession
that moves my bones upsets.
I take off my leather-tanned boot
and drink a strong liquor
thinking that in that way
I'm going to relieve my thirst.

I wake up here again.
I try to forget
and I go down more and more.
I get to this beach
and a woman with green eyes
gives me water from the sea.
(And I drank.
I though that in that way
I was going to relieve my thirst.)

Faraway from home,
who would dare to talk
while I'm tired of waiting
the cup that is never brought to me?
Now, I can't come back

OBSESSION (MONOMANÍA)

I need to keep on moving
now that I'm far away from me.
But there's no bar left open
and my friends all have gone to bed.

And so, I start to fictionalize
the story of what it will be
when things go worse.
And I see myself almost the same as now
that I have nothing
except the certainty of pain.

Or I will surprise myself screaming one day:
-You can keep on with your life
that I will keep on with mine, if they let me.-

Well, everything happened according to the plan
and now I have in my forearm a purple scar,
and the insane desire still persists in me.
Nobody arrives too far if it's not to keep on.

But, if by chance
I hear you are in the city
and somebody introduces us sometime,
then I won't imply what it's true:
I still love you
and I always did.

Or I will surprise myself screaming one day:
-You can keep on with your life
that I will keep on with mine, if they let me.-

Or I will surprise myself screaming one day:
-And the nonsense was worthy!-
And I will keep on with my life, if you let me.

ETCETERA

It's almost midday and terror settles down.
Michel Houellebecq

I sing this for a sky
made of metal
today that the ground opens
wide cracks like the sea at my feet.
I will love you for the beauty
hidden in your inner self.
I will love you for the health that spots
some kind of grey skin;
some kind of bitter breath;
It's daytime now
and terror has settled down here.

Nobody to love
is
nobody to hurt,
etcetera.
To die of thirst
but for once
nobody dies by my side.

And I wonder in a day like today
how many are they and where
and I'm amazed by how can I
stand ad nauseam.
And I contemplate in the mirror
the flakes of my skin,
and I pray to leave this skin,
and I pray to escape
faraway from here,
so faraway from me,
a skin that turns into gray.
What will they say
if they see me like that?
I could cry
but I'm going to laugh.

Nobody to love,
nobody to hurt,
etcetera.
I will die of thirst
but for once
nobody will die by my side.

CURSE (MALDICIÓN)

Ezequiel, it was a big mistake just to come back. It was too early and people find it difficult to forget. Ezequiel takes a deep breath when he goes down from the train. It's strange, nobody is waiting in the platform. A brief intuition: something smells like a curse. But he goes to the house where he grew up.
And talks to her mother:-It's me, mother, don't you see? - Mother says:-Forget that one day I gave birth to you-. And he talks to his father:-Father, what's going on here?- Father doesn't answer; he just curses. Ezequiel goes to the bar; somebody will explain about it. But everybody keeps quiet, everybody is silent when they see him coming in.

They say he did something and nobody forgets it,
but he is not able to remind it
and his whole life was reduced to a curse
with the years and years.
Ezequiel, you better go at night and without annoying.

Ezequiel hides near the railways. He needs an answer not to get mad. What happened a black summer in his home town that people even dare to mention? At dawn, he washed himself in a pond nearby, and in his reflection, he finds all the truth.
Ezequiel contemplates the water with a horrific wince. In his face he finds the face of curse. He gets to the depth of his eyes, where there is no light. He can see his soul and keeps going into the depth. He takes conscience of evil and his scream sounds like the one of a broken man that discovers the animal inside.

They say he did something and nobody forgets about it,
but he is not able to remind it
and his whole life was reduced to a curse
with the years and years.
Ezequiel, you better go at night and without annoying.

Ezequiel, start to escape, nobody will miss it. He escapes to the north, the smell of salt guides him. The Cantabric is shown in all its greatness. He undresses and slowly moves forward to the sun. And decides to rest under the gray cloak of the sea. The waves rock him and he sleeps eternally like an old czar.

They say he did something and nobody forgot it,
but he was not able to remind it
and his whole life was reduced to a curse
And now he waits for the Judgement
forever and ever.
Ezequiel, rest in peace at the bottom of the sea.

STORY OF A LOSER (HISTORIA DE UN PERDEDOR)

One-day I decided to go. I said:-Father, I'm not going to come back.- He buttoned up his shirt and gave me a cross and a piece of paper. I came out, with his laughter at my back, and it started to rain. And I ran, and I arrived to the city, and I came to the first brothel. There, I knew a bad woman with a wig and a crystal eye.-If you want me, you'll have to pay-, she blurted out without stopping to chew. I doubted:-I just have this cross.- She said:-That's enough.- And I don't know if I dreamt it or if she winked the crystal eye.

That's my story, man.
I know you're not interested on it.
But this is my story, man.
She left me in the sidewalk
and people called me loser.

I shook my trousers. I wanted to get drunk, so I came in a dark place. I stroke up a short friendship with the barman. They called him Crazy Thomas. And I drank, I drank Irish whisky until I almost fainted. And, since I thought I knew something else, I paid with the piece of paper. And when Crazy Thomas read it, his color changed. He screamed:-Nobody makes fun of me. Not a prat like you, not at my home. Queers are not welcome here.- They were three, the Crazy and two more; I came out badly. They ripped off my trousers and then they impaled me.

This is my story, man.
I know you're not interested on it.
But this is my story, man.
They left me naked in the ditch
and in my chest they made a tattoo - LOSER-.

Don't worry about it, man; I've reached the end. What you want to do, I will do it to you. But I just want you to know I'm not that unhappy man from the story you've just heard. Look at me, if you want me you'll have to pay. But no, not a cross or a piece of paper, but something real.

Because this is my story, man.
I know you're not interested on it.
But this is my story, man.
These people spurn me outside,
and gossip: _There goes the loser._

La, la, la, la...
Don't spit at my face, man.

THE SONG OF THE HYPNOGOGIA

To Ramón Lluis Bande

I spend the dead hours
looking at the smoke
The moon laughs
and I consume myself.
And this is the song of the hypnogogia,
and this is the song that sounds in my soul.

When I went to sleep
death arrived.
It caressed my body
and read my mind.
And this is the song of the hypnogogia,
and this is the song that sounds in my soul.

She talked slowly,
she said to me.
And I answered, my parents
are oblivion
and the song of the hypnogogia.
and this is the song that sounds in my soul.

This night tastes sweet
it doesn't end.
It tasted sweet between the smoke
of heroin.
And this is the song of the hypnogogia,
and this is the song that sounds in my soul.

Just have a thing for sure
in life:
at last, there's just loneliness
and sorrow.
And this is the song of the hypnogogia,
and this is the song that sounds in my soul.

And even though that now
it's daytime,
in my mind still survives
the melody
of the song of the hypnogogia.
the song that sounds in my soul.