1. Sabida es la suerte del que se roba una gallina; hai para él cien pacos y ciento un días de prisión.
The fate of him who steals a chicken is well-known:  there are 100 cops and 101 days in jail for him.

2. En cambio para el que roba un millón de pesos hai ciento un mil millones de sonrisas y reverencias.
By contrast, for him who robs a million pesos there are a hundred and one billion smiles and courtesies.

3. ¡Desgraciado del que corta una oreja al prójimo! Más le valiera no haber nacido. Entra niño a la cárcel y cuando sale ya es bisabuelo. Very unfortunate is he who cuts off his fellowman's ear. Better for him he'd never been born. He goes to jail as a boy and when he comes out he's a great grandfather.

4. Pero si en la guerra el mismo individuo hubiera muerto a cien, en vez de ir a la cárcel, se hubiera hecho acreedor a una estatua ecuestre. But if it's in a war, the same individual could kill a hundred and instead of going to jail, he'd have earned himself an equestrian statue.

5. Nadie repara en el que se toma una copa. Es un ser vulgarísimo. No one notices someone who has a little drink. He's an extremely ordinary being.

6.Pero si se toma veinte y se emborracha, es llevado gratis en coche y gratis se le alimenta en la cárcel a costa del Estado. But if he has twenty and gets drunk, he's carried off free of charge in a carriage and has his meals for free in jail at government expense..



7. Un muchacho lleva a empeñar un par de pantalones. En el momento de entrar a la agencia es sorprendido por el padre. Lo primero que hace éste es sacudirle el polvo con un garrote, y con el pretexto de que está echando un borrón sobre los timbres de la familia.

A boy tries to hock a pair of pants. At the moment he enters the pawn shop, he's caught by his father. First thing the latter does is knock the dust out of him with a stick, with the pretext that he's putting a blot on the family coat of arms. AJENCIA EL CAÑONAZO: Cañonazo, a play on caña (a small glass of wine), literally means a cannon shot, but is Chilean slang for a stiff drink. Ajencia is now spelled agencia

8.El mismo día va el padre a la Caja Hipotecaria e hipoteca su fundo. El hijo le ve a la salida y tiene que callarse cuando tenía sentado derecho para molerlo a palos. El padre ha empeñado su fundo así como el hijo no hizo sino hipotecar sus pantalones. De todo esto se desprende que: o se hacen las cosas en grande o no se hacen.

The same day the father goes to the bank and mortgages his farm. The son sees him at the exit and has to keep quiet when he has a perfect right to take a stick to him. His father has hocked his farm the same as the son did no more than mortgage his pants.

From all this it can be deduced that things must be done in a big way or not at all.

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