La Carcel De Sing Sing Lyrics in English by Alci Acosta
Abalanzó comes from abalanzarse, meaning to suddenly throw oneself toward someone or something. In the song, the condemned man "a mí se abalanzó" as he approached the narrator, creating a vivid, dramatic moment during his final confession.
It's a memorable verb because it conveys sudden, intense movement and is much more expressive than simply saying "he came toward me."
“La Cárcel de Sing Sing” means “The Sing Sing Prison.” The song opens with a visitor entering Sing Sing and finding a prisoner kneeling alone, praying to “el Redentor” [the Redeemer]. When the prisoner sees the visitor, he rushes over and begins a trembling confession. He says he is condemned to die because he killed the woman he loved and her lover after finding them together. The story is blunt and dramatic: love, jealousy, violence, and a death sentence all arrive in a few verses.
The final scene is especially stark. The prisoner says, “Minutos nada más me quedan ya pa respirar” [I only have a few minutes left to breathe], while the electric chair and execution chamber are ready. His last concern is his desperate mother, who should receive a keepsake from him. The repeated line “Por culpa de su infame moriré” [Because of her betrayal, I will die] shows how he still blames the woman even as he admits, “Yo tuve que matar a un ser que quise amar” [I had to kill someone I loved]. For English learners, “pa’” is a shortened, spoken form of “para,” meaning “for” or “in order to” here, and “infame” means shameful or disgraceful. The repetition makes his final minutes feel like a confession he cannot escape.
