Listen all of you - oho-ho, eheh-hey! I am, a parrot - pirate of the seas: I was born in the year one thousand some time In the banana-liana thicket, My papa was a parrot cockatoo, At the time not a speaking one yet. But I soon abandoned the virgin forest: Was captivated by the awful Hernan Cortes, - He began to shout at my poor papa, But he could not answer Hernan. He couldn’t, was unable to answer. To take revenge - the whole night through I learnt three words, together only three. Obstinately I forced myself - to repeat: "Caramba!", "Corrida!" and "Go to hell!" Listen all of you, - oho-ho, eheh-hey! I am, a parrot - the pirate of the seas. A storm has caught us on the way back, It was especially hard on me. An English frigate under the name of "Brig" Boarded our vessel. There was a fight hand to hand for three nights, two days - And the wicked pirate captivated me. So I began to swim on various vessels, In the region of the equator in the northward ice. On various pirate vessels. They gave me coffee, cocoa, to eat, To welcome them with "How do you do?" But I repeated the whole night through: "Caramba!", Corrida!" and "Go to hell!" Listen all of you, oho-ho, eheh-hey! I am, a parrot - the pirate of the seas. Hundred years I swam as a pirate and what now? A good for nothing sailor Sold me in slavery for a broken half-kopek piece, And I was already a speaking one. A Turkish pasha broke the knife in two, When I said to him: "Pasha salam!" And the pasha simply fainted, When he noticed, that I already write, Speak, sing and cry. I saw India, China and the Iraque. I am an individual, not a Polly-fool. Thus only thinks a savage. Caramba! Corrida! and Go to hell!
© Elisabeth Jelinek. Translation, 2018