La Del Pirata Cojo Lyrics in English Joaquin Sabina

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Below, I translated the lyrics of the song La Del Pirata Cojo by Joaquin Sabina from Spanish to English.

I'm not some guy with an easy tear

One of those that complain just out of habit

If life lets me, I'll lay hands on it

And if not, my trade still excites me

And since dreaming comes free as well

And I don't believe in reincarnation

With a bit of imagination

I'll head off traveling right away

To live other lives

To try on other names

To slip into the suit and the skin

Of all the men

that I'll never be

Al Capone in Chicago

Legionnaire in Melilla

Painter in Montparnasse

Merchant in Damascus

Costalero in Seville

Black man in New Orleans

Dirty old man in Sodom

Deportee in Siberia

Sultan in a harem

Policeman, not even as a joke

Champion of the fair

Gypsy kid in Jerez

Gambler in Monte Carlo

Cigarette in your mouth

Taxi driver in New York

The coolest in the neighborhood

I roll 'cause it's my turn

Flunked in religion

Confessor to the queen

Banderillero in Cadiz

Tavern keeper in Dublin

Communist in Las Vegas

Drowned on the Titanic

Piper in Hamelin

But if they let me choose

Among all the lives I choose

The life of the peg-leg pirate

With a patch on the eye

With a bad-guy face

The old rogue, captain

Of a ship that flew as its flag

A pair of tibias and a skull

The life of the peg-leg pirate

With a patch on the eye

With a bad-guy face

The old rogue, captain

Of a ship that flew as its flag

A pair of tibias and a skull

Three-cushion billiards player

Draft-dodger in heaven

Owner of a cabaret

Scratch on your back

Tenor in Rigoletto

Pianist in a brothel

Bongo player in Havana

Casanova in Venice

Old man in Shangri-La

Stowaway in your bed

Orchestra vocalist

Fastest lap in Le Mans

Crime reporter

Detective in trouble

Preserved in alcohol

Rapist in your dreams

Suicide on the viaduct

Hunk in a soap opera

Morphine addict in China

Deserter in the war

Boxer in Detroit

Hunter in India

Sailor in Marseilles

Photographer in Playboy

But if they let me choose

Among all the lives I choose

The life of the peg-leg pirate

With a patch on the eye

With a bad-guy face

The old rogue, captain

Of a ship that flew as its flag

A pair of tibias and a skull

The life of the peg-leg pirate

With a patch on the eye

With a bad-guy face

The old rogue, captain

Of a ship that flew as its flag

A pair of tibias and a skull

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Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

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SONG MEANING

La del Pirata Cojo is Joaquín Sabina’s playful day-dream on steroids, a whirlwind tour through dozens of possible identities: gangster in Chicago, painter in Paris, taxi driver in New York, even a flautist charming rats in Hamelin. With each role, Sabina shows off a boundless imagination and a refusal to moan about life; if reality does not cooperate, fantasy will. The lyrics read like a passport stamped in every era and continent, celebrating the delicious freedom of trying on lives you will never actually lead.

After this carnival of disguises, the singer finally settles on his favorite alter ego: the one-legged, eye-patched pirate who rules the seas beneath a skull-and-crossbones flag. The choice is revealing. Pirates answer to no one, embrace risk and adventure, and live outside society’s rules — exactly the kind of rebellious spirit Sabina admires. Beneath the humor and swagger, the song reminds us that imagination is free, conformity is optional, and the best life might just be the one where we steer our own ship into the unknown.

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Joaquin Sabina La Del Pirata Cojo Lyrics