What are the most common lyrics of Mexican folk song 'La Cucaracha'?

Answer 1

I learned two different versions of it, one is not so nice, the other is better. Here they are:

La cucaracha, la cucaracha,

Ya no puede caminar.

Porque no tiene, porque le falta,

La marijuana que fumar.

And the nicer one:

La cucaracha, la cucaracha,

Ya no puede caminar,

Porque no tiene, porque le faltan

Las dos patitas de atrás.

The first one says he can't walk because he has no marijuana (as if that makes any sense!) and the second one says he can't walk because he doesn't have two back feet. LOL

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There are hundreds of verses to this traditional Mexican Folk song. The use of Marijuana in the quoted stanza is referring to its pain-killing and... what's the word? "forgetting" properties. In other words, the soldier is weary and footsore, but smoking marijuana makes his (or in some versions, her) feet stop hurting and makes them forget their troubles--they can keep right on marching (or dancing or whatever).

The second quote is a kid's version, where "La Cucaracha" is just a cockroach, no metaphor involved.

Answer 2

The lyrics consist of independent verses, often improvised. It is similar to Yankee Doodle, The Burning of the School or On Top of Old Smoky. It is widely believed that the original version is as follows: : La cucaracha, la cucaracha, : Ya no puede caminar; : Porque no tiene, porque le falta : Marihuana que fumar. English : The cockroach, the cockroach, : Can't walk anymore : Because it doesn't have, because it's lacking : Marijuana to smoke This version was popularized among Mexican soldiers during the Mexican Revolution, and as it spread throughout various Spanish cultures, many more versions came to be. The most traditional Spanish version is as follows: : La cucaracha, la cucaracha, : Ya no puede caminar : Porque no tiene, porque le falta : Las dos patitas de atras English : The cockroach, the cockroach, : Can't walk anymore : Because it doesn't have, because it's lacking : Its two back feet

Answer 3

Ok. "La chucaracha song". First of all chucaracha means cockroach.

it is a very popular song for kids sung by a kid song writer called "cri cri"

it refers to a cockroach unable to walk:

La cucaracha (the cockroach) ya no (no anymore) puede caminar (able to walk)

porque (because) le falta (it is missing) una patita (a little leg) para caminar (for walking).

Answer 4

La Cucaracha (Mexican Cockroach Song)

[Posted 10 October 2004]

In the spirit of the Roach v. Bush debates, below is a description of The Mexican Cockroach Song, La Cucaracha, from Carl Sandburg's book The American Songbag (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1927). Until I found that antique book in a Madison, Wisconsin bookstore, I never realized that the song mentioned marijuana. Maybe that's why it's rarely heard anymore. For some reason it was well-known back in the 60s and 70s when I was growing up. And like today's Presidential comparisons, the original song may have been referring to political figures instead of insects.

Here are the lyrics featured in the sheet music Sandburg included:

When a fellow loves a maiden

And that maiden doesn't love him,

It's the same as when a bald man

Finds a comb upon the highway.

The cucaracha, the cucaracha

Doesn't want to travel on

Because she hasn't

Oh, no, she hasn't

Marihuana for to smoke.

If that doesn't make sense, here's Sandburg's complete commentary on the song, including verses in both English and Spanish:

LA CUCARACHA (MEXICAN COCKROACH SONG)

Dark women are good as gold;

Brunettes like silver win;

The blondes are only copper,

And the light ones only tin.

God made the swarthy women;

A silversmith the white ones;

The dark brunettes, a tailor;

A cobbler the black-as-night ones.

In his book, "The Land of Poco Tempo," Charles Lummis gives these verses as instances of epigrammatic folk utterances, proverbial rhymes, dichos. Nearly every Mexican sometimes has made a dicho, and the fittest of them survive, Lummis tells us. They include offhand oddities such as this:

Lovable eyes

Of coffee hue,

Give me a kiss

Of faith all true.

And they may proclaim lines of highly serious mood:

There is no better friend than God,

This is clear and past denying;

For the dearest may betray,

The most truthful may be lying.

We are not surprised that in the song of La Cucaracha (The Cockroach), there is a variety of theme. Sunny Spain heard the likes of some of the verses before they married a new tune in Mexico. And for understanding the banter and satire of other stanzas one would require knowledge of the careers of Pancho Villa and Zapata besides an acquaintance with Mexican political and revolutionary history. In 1916 in Chicago I heard the tune and two or three stray verses of La Cucaracha from Wallace Smith and Don Magregor, both of whom as newspaper correspondents with a streak of outlaw in them, had eaten frijoles with Villa and slept under Pancho's poncho, so to speak. Also T.K. Hedrick from down Texas way sang the Cockroach song in Mexican. However, we must not assume that a cockroach is what the Mexican means in singing these verses. It may be a pet name, "The Little Dancer," we are told by Alice Corbin. For F.S. Curtis, Jr., of the Texas Folk Lore Society observes, "A whole dissertation might be written upon the fact that a cucaracha may be either a cockroach or a little, dried-up old maid, and that the term was also used as a nickname for the late Venustiano Carranza; and considerable space might be devoted to explaining that marihuana is a weed, which, when smoked, is capable of producing serious narcotic effects and even causing a homicidal mania." Then he queries significantly, "But of what benefit is such stuff to the songs of New Mexico?" The text here is from Curtis. He says of the tune, "It strongly suggests a sixteenth century origin, especially with the guitar accompaniment usually used." [p. 289]

LA CUCARACHA [p. 291]

1 Cuando uno quiere a una

Y esta una no lo quiere,

Es lo mismo que si un calvo

En la calle encuentr' un peine.

Chorus:

La cucaracha, la cucaracha,

Ya no quieres caminar,

Porque no tienes,

Porque le falta,

Marihuana que fumar.

2 Las muchachas son de oro;

Las casadas son de plata;

Las viudas son de cobre,

Y las viejas oja de lata.

3 Mi vecina de enfrente

Se llamaba Doña Clara,

Y si no había muerto

Es probable se llamara.

4 Las muchachas de Las Vegas

Son muy altas y delgaditas,

Pero son mas pedigueñas

Que las animas benditas.

5 Las muchachas de la villa

No saben ni dar un beso,

Cuando las de Albuquerque

Hasta estiran el pescuezo.

6 Las muchachas Mexicanas

Son lindas como una flor,

Y hablan tan dulcemente

Que encantan de amor.

7 Una cosa me da risa --

Pancho Villa sin camisa.

Ya se van los Carranzistas

Porque vienen los Villistas.

8 Necesita automóvil

Par' hacer la caminata

Al lugar a donde mandó

La convención Zapata.

1 When a fellow loves a maiden

And that maiden doesn't love him,

It's the same as when a bald man

Finds a comb upon the highway.

Chorus:

The cucaracha, the cucaracha,

Doesn't want to travel on

Because she hasn't,

Oh no, she hasn't

Marihuana for to smoke.

2 All the maidens are of pure gold;

All the married girls are silver;

All the widows are of copper,

And old women merely tin.

3 My neighbor across the highway

Used to be called Doña Clara,

And if she has not expired

Likely that's her name tomorrow.

4 All the girls up at Las Vegas

Are most awful tall and skinny,

But they're worse for plaintive pleading

Than the souls in Purgatory.

5 All the girls here in the city

Don't know how to give you kisses,

While the ones from Albuquerque

Stretch their necks to avoid misses.

6 All the girls from Mexico

Are as pretty as a flower

And they talk so very sweetly,

Fill your heart quite up with love.

7 One thing makes me laugh most hearty--

Pancho Villa with no shirt on

Now the Carranzistas beat it

Because Villa's men are coming.

8 Fellow needs an automobile

If he undertakes the journey

To the place to which Zapata

Ordered the famous convention.

Answer 5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Cucaracha This will explain everything.

Answer 6

La Cucaracha translates to "The Cockroach" in English.