Tu padre era rubio, borracho y malevo,
tu madre era negra con labios malvón.
Mulata naciste con ojos de cielo
y mota en el pelo de negro carbón.
Creciste entre el lodo de un barrio muy pobre,
cumpliste veinte años en un cabaret.
Y ahora te llaman moneda de cobre
porque vieja y triste muy poco valés.

Moneda de cobre,
yo sé que ayer fuiste hermosa;
yo con tus alas de rosa
te vi volar mariposa
y después te vi caer...
Moneda de fango,
¡Qué bien bailabas el tango!...
Qué linda estabas entonces,
como una reina de bronce,
allá en el 'Folies Berger'.

Aquel barrio triste de barro y de latas
igual que tu vida desapareció...
Pasaron veinte años, querida mulata,
no existen tus padres, no existe el farol.
Quizás en la esquina te quedes perdida
buscando la casa que te vio nacer;
seguí, no te pares, no muestres la herida...
No llores mulata, total, ¡para qué!

English translation

Your father was blond, drunk and evil,
your mother was black with malvon lips.
Mulatto you were born with eyes of the sky
and a speck of coal-black hair.
You grew up in the mud of a very poor neighborhood,
you turned twenty in a cabaret.
And now they call you a copper coin
because you're old and sad and worth very little.

Copper coin,
I know that yesterday you were beautiful;
I with your rose wings
I saw you fly butterfly
and then I saw you fall...
Coin of mud,
How well you danced the tango!...
How beautiful you were then,
like a bronze queen,
there at the 'Folies Berger'.

That sad neighborhood of mud and tin cans
just as your life disappeared...
Twenty years have passed, dear mulatto,
your parents don't exist, the lantern doesn't exist.
Maybe on the corner you'll stay lost
looking for the house where you were born;
go on, don't stop, don't show the wound...
Don't cry, mulatto, what's the use!