Si me quieres escribir

"Si me quieres escribir" (English: "If You Want to Write to Me"), also known as "Ya sabes mi paradero" ("You Know Where I Am Posted") and "El frente de Gandesa" (The Gandesa Front), is one of the most famous songs of the Spanish Republican troops during the Spanish Civil War.[1]

"Si me quieres escribir"
Flag of a mixed brigade of the Spanish Republic
Song
LanguageSpanish
English title"Battle at Gandesa"

Background

The melody is based on a former song of the Spanish military units in the Rif Wars in Northern Morocco in the 1920s. The lyrics may change according to the location of the combat and the units involved. The Gandesa front and the blowing up of pontoons and bridges are related to the passage of the river in the Battle of the Ebro, also mentioned in ¡Ay Carmela!. The Spanish Republican combat engineers were capable of repeatedly repairing the bridges and pontoons in order to allow the loyalist troops to cross the river —at least a few hours every day— despite the steady bombings of the Nazi Condor Legion and the Italian Aviazione Legionaria, as well as the intentional flooding by releasing water from dams upstream.[2]

The moros (Moors) mentioned in some verses are the Regulares, the feared Moroccan shock troop units of the Nationalist faction that kept pounding Republican positions for months at the Gandesa frontline.[3][4]

Lyrics
  • The main stanza begins mostly with Si me quieres escribir; it is usually repeated at the end. Also every pair of verses is repeated twice.[5] There are many different stanzas and these may be subject to local variations and be sung in different combinations.[4] The following are some of the most common:
Si me quieres escribir,
Ya sabes mi paradero:
Tercera Brigada Mixta,
Primera línea de fuego.
Aunque me tiren el puente
Y también la pasarela
Me verás pasar el Ebro
En un barquito de vela.
Diez mil veces que los tiren
Diez mil veces pasaremos
Que para eso nos ayudan
Los del Cuerpo de Ingenieros.
En la venta de Gandesa
Hay un moro Mojamé
Que te dice: «Pasa, "paisa"
¿Qué quieres para comer?»
El primer plato que dan
Son granadas rompedoras,
Y el segundo de metralla
Para recobrar memoria.
If you want to write to me,
You know where I am posted:
The Third Mixed Brigade,
In the first line of fire.
Even if they blast our bridge
And also the pontoon,
You will see me crossing the Ebro River:
In a little sailboat.
They may blast them ten thousand times
Ten thousand times we shall go across them,
We can do that with the help
Of the Corps of Engineers.
At the Gandesa inn
There is Mohamed, a Moor,
Who tells one: "Come in, fellow!
What do you wish to eat?"
The first course they give
Are fragmentation grenades,
And the second are shrapnel shells,
To refresh one's memory.

Variants

One popular Civil War variant of this song where the lyrics make reference to the Siege of Madrid is known as "Los Emboscados".[4] These are two of the main stanzas:

Cuando vamos de permiso,
Lo primero qué se ve,
Son milicianos de pega
Que están tomando café.
Los moros que trajo Franco
En Madrid quieren entrar.
Mientras quede un miliciano
Los moros no pasarán.
When we go on leave (to Madrid),
The first thing one sees,
Are fake militiamen
That are drinking coffee.
The Moors that Franco brought,
Want to enter Madrid
As long as one militiaman remains,
The Moors will not get through.

The first stanza of "Los emboscados" is an adaptation of an older variant of 1936[4] that was not related to the war:

Cuando entras en Madrid
Lo primero que se ve
Son los chulos con bigote
Sentados en el café
When one enters Madrid,
The first thing one sees,
Are the moustachioed Chulos
Sitting at the café.

See also

References
  1. Canciones republicanas
  2. Beevor, Antony. (2006). The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. Penguin Books. London. pp. 352–353
  3. Beevor, Antony. (2006). The Battle for Spain. The Spanish Civil War, 1936–1939. Penguin Books. London. p. 352.
  4. Si me quieres escribir - Ya sabes mi paradero - El Frente de Gandesa - Los emboscados
  5. Si Me Quieres Escribir - YouTube
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