El Hijo Desobediente Lyrics in English by Antonio Aguilar
Desobediente means "disobedient." It's a key word that directly relates to the song's title, "El Hijo Desobediente" (The Disobedient Son), immediately telling you what the song is about.
This word is interesting because it sets the stage for a dramatic narrative about a son who defies his father, leading to tragic consequences. It's a powerful moral tale, and this word encapsulates the central conflict and theme of the entire song.
"El Hijo Desobediente" is an old corrido about a son too proud to back down from a fight. His father begs him to stop, calling him "Hijo de mi corazón" [son of my heart], and the boy answers with the line that decides everything: "Quítese de aquí mi padre, que estoy más bravo que un león" [get out of here, my father, I'm fiercer than a lion]. He draws his knife anyway, and by the next verse his own father is naming the date of his execution: "Antes de que salga el sol, la vida le han de quitar" [before the sun comes up, they'll take your life].
What follows are the son's funeral instructions, sung as calmly as a list of chores. He doesn't want a churchyard grave, asking instead "que me entierre en tierra bruta, donde me trille el ganado" [bury me in wild earth, where the cattle will trample me], and he leaves his horses to his father and to the poor. The epitaph he chooses for himself is blunt: "Felipe fue desgraciado" [Felipe was disgraced]. Antonio Aguilar sings all of it in the same flat, unhurried voice corridos use for bad news, so the three long "Adiós, adiós, adiós" [goodbye, goodbye, goodbye] at the close hit harder than they should, a boy telling his father goodbye instead of the other way around.
