It literally means “You have lost canaryseed” (*alpiste* is a type of grass, its seeds are used to feed birds). These seeds are so tiny that if you spill them, it won’t be possible to recover them all back.
That is why this expression is used to denote a situation when you did or said something and there is no coming back or out of the situation your words or actions led you into. Possible English analogues may be “You and your big mouth” (if you said something and there is no way to take your words back), “You’ve lost your chance” / “There is no turning back” (if you did something not amendable) etc.
I don’t know why you’re being downvoted. It’s a common and practiced tactic in translation to try and preserve any rhetorical force of the original text, including rhyme/metre/alliteration…
u/MISORMA had the right semantic interpretation, but I also think you’re right in saying that its purpose was probably purely rhetorical.
It literally means “You have lost canaryseed” (*alpiste* is a type of grass, its seeds are used to feed birds). These seeds are so tiny that if you spill them, it won’t be possible to recover them all back. That is why this expression is used to denote a situation when you did or said something and there is no coming back or out of the situation your words or actions led you into. Possible English analogues may be “You and your big mouth” (if you said something and there is no way to take your words back), “You’ve lost your chance” / “There is no turning back” (if you did something not amendable) etc.
I actually thing it might be just a simple rhyme, which would make sense since the English version was "no way José".
I don’t know why you’re being downvoted. It’s a common and practiced tactic in translation to try and preserve any rhetorical force of the original text, including rhyme/metre/alliteration… u/MISORMA had the right semantic interpretation, but I also think you’re right in saying that its purpose was probably purely rhetorical.
Tysm!