La Ballade des cimetières

The speaker claims to own graves in cemeteries everywhere, yet is frustrated that he has none in the cemetery closest to his home. His cheerful boasting gradually reveals a comic obsession with death and burial. In the final verse, the joke turns against him: after talking so much about tombs, he dies, but his body is taken to the wrong cemetery.

The “small concession” means a plot of land reserved for a grave, while the many “little bumps” in the paths suggest graves beneath the earth. “Graves in Spain” echoes an expression for something that may exist but cannot be found or proven; here it extends the speaker’s absurd list of supposed possessions. His “coat of arms” being ruffled means his pride is offended by the one missing plot.

The speaker’s eagerness for his aunt to die, so he can inherit her belongings, makes his interest in death selfish as well as playful. His visits to cemeteries on the Day of the Dead may sound like mourning, but the lyrics present them as part of his fixation. The ending may be read as poetic justice, or simply as one last absurd mishap: even in death, he does not get the burial he wanted.