Sunday, December 7, 2008

Spanglish Christmas Poem

I read this in a local magazine and thought it was cute!

'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the casa,
not a creature was stirring - ¡Caramba! ¿Qué pasa?
Los niños were tucked away in their camas,
some in long underwear, some in pijamas,
while hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado,
in hopes that old Santa would feel obligado,
to bring all children, both buenos and malos,
a nice batch of dulces and other regalos.
Outside in the yard there arose un gran grito,
and I jumped to my feet like a frightened cabrito.
I ran to the window and looked out afuera,
and who in the world do you think that he era?
Saint Nick in a sleigh and a big red sombrero,
came dashing along like a loco bombero.
And pulling his sleigh instead of venados,
were eight little burros approaching volando.
I watched as they came and this quaint little hombre,
was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre:
''Ay Pancho, ay Pepe, ay Cuco, ay Beto,
ay Chato, ay Chopo, Maruco, y Nieto!''
Then standing erect with his hands on his pecho,
he flew to the top of our very own techo,
with his round little belly like a bowl of jalea,
he struggled to squeeze down our old chimenea.
Then huffing and puffing at last in our sala,
with soot smeared all over his suit de gala,
he filled all the stockings with lively regalos,
none for the niños that had been very malos.
Then chuckling aloud, seeming very contento,
he turned like a flash and was gone como el viento,
and I heard him exclaim, y ¡esto es verdad!
Merry Christmas to all, ¡y Feliz Navidad!

--author unknown

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I love this poema tambien! I plan to read it to my clase for this Navidad!
Gracias por sharing!

Rachel Biel said...

Very funny! There are always some words that just sound better in certain languages. When we moved back from Brazil, I had the hardest time parting with the word "lixo" (Pronounced lee-shoo) which means garbage. "Throw it in the lixo" just sounded right where garbage was much harder on the tongue. Boston has a huge population of Brazilians and a friend was once talking about English words they have corrupted. The one I can remember is lettuce, pronounced "leh-too-see".

Many of my Chicago friends are in mixed Brazilian/Mexican marriages, so when we get together, we speak Portuspanglish. Very confusing for the kids. One of my Mexican friends is frustrated because he says he can't speak any of the languages correctly anymore and his family laughs at him when he calls home to Mexico...