Lunfardo Poem I (with English-language version)

Juan Carlos Báez (via Todotango, English by Tango Decoder)

La billetera es un cuero, la cadena, una marroca, un cabo al vesre es un boca, y andar mal, andar fulero. Un bolonqui, un entrevero, un proxeneta es un fioca, buchonear, irse de boca, y un comisario, un taquero. Chaleco es camisulín, bien vestido, shushetín, hombre rico, un bacanazo. Alcahuete es batistín, un tipo vivo, un piolín, y pedir plata un mangazo.

A wallet is “a leather,” a chain, “a Maroccan,” a butt (cabo) in “reverse” is a mouth (boca),* and to be in bad shape, to “feel ugly.” A bolonqui, “a brawl,”* a pimp is a “fioca,”* to squeal, to “run off at the mouth,” and a police captain, a “heel-cutter.”* Vest is a “fancy shirt,” well dressed, “shushetín”* a rich guy is a “bacanazo”.* A gossip is a “batistín” a clever guy, a "piolín," and to ask for a loan, a “big pinch.”

*Reverse: Vesre is slang in which the letters of a word are transposed.  Hence “cabo” is “boca.”
*fioca: Var. of cafishio, “pimp”
*bolonqui: Vesre for quilombo, “brawl”
*heel-cutter: Police captains used to cut off the heel of one of a captive compadrito’s boots to humiliate them.
*shushetín: dandyish
*bacanazo: big shot, bon vivant
*piolín: Vesre for limpio, “clean.”

 Photo source: http://arsushuaia.blogspot.com