Dominika
Pan de Yuca Ballad, by Hernando Martínes Rueda -Martinón- (own translation)*
It's the best thing to bite,
pandeyuca we all must have
Pandeyuca is a gem
from colonial times
our grandparents didn´t know
how without pandeyuca dine;
often dipped in chocolate,
it can also be filled
and with blackberry or fig preserve
even a cardinal would be thrilled
When things get messed up
pandeyuca we all must have
To prepare pandeyuca
one must an apron slip on
make the dough with cottage cheese,
salt, starch, water, and also yolks;
yeast…you don’t need at all
to make it´s volume rise
just to knead the little buns
and let them brown before your eyes.
When luck gets a little spooky
pandeyuca we need, not cookies
It is like a glass of nepentes
for those who try to forget:
Asian people take opium
the English veronal ingest;
in Egypt they eat lotuses,
in Turkestan they chew hashish;
here we eat pandeyuca
and can’t remember a single thing.
When the government falls apart
pandeyuca we all must have
A Japanese does hara-kiri,
a German drinks cyanide;
Cleopatra lets into her breast
a deathly coral snake slide,
Petronius cuts his veins,
Neron stabs himself with a knife
Here we eat pandeyuca
we won’t commit suicide.
When luck comes to crush us
for pandeyuca we all must rush
Savoranola is consumed
on the inquisitorial pyre;
the Admiral’s flagship burns
in Trafalgar, in a bonfire
and Adolf Hitler scorches
in his bunker in Wilhelmplatz
Take the pandeyuca out of the oven
before it’s late and it turns damn black!
You don't have to die like Churruca,
Just have to have some pandeyuca
Tiberius is exiled to Capri
Cincinnatus starts to plow
Napoleon in Saint Helena
ruminates on his long war
Carlos V meditates in Yuste
and Felipe in El Escorial
we sit tightly in the pantry
nobody comes to bother us.
Prince: glory has expired;
Pandeyuca we all must have
* If the English version is not available, the author of the blog offers her own translation.