“Today is Goodbye” Lyrics
Album: Shaman, 2002
Style: Blues rock, Chicano rock, sad song about losing people across the USA-Mexico border. It is from the perspective of a person left behind, singing about their loved one who left with the intent of crossing the border, then time passing and not knowing what happed to them, but continuing to wait.
Country: Mexico, Argentina
Listen: YouTube
Translation:
Él se fue con el invierno.
Él se ha ido a trabajar.
No me ha escrito en mucho tiempo;
Él dijo que volverá.
He left with the winter.
He has gone to work.
Hasn’t written to me in a long time;
He said he would return.
Pero el tiempo pasó,
No preguntes por qué
Él ya no regresó a nuestro hogar.
La frontera marcó
Su destino final
Y a mis brazos jamás volvío.
But the time passed,
Don’t ask why
He won’t return to our home now.
The border marked
His final destination
And to my arms he never returned.
Hoy es adios;
Mañana quizas.
Sé que tú vas a volver.
Hoy es adios,
Mañana quizas.
No hay fronteras en nuestro querer.
Today is goodbye;
Tomorrow, perhaps.
I know that you will return.
Today is goodbye,
Tomorrow, perhaps.
There are no borders in our love.
Ya ha pasado un nuevo invierno
Desde que te ví marchar.
No hay un mundo mejor que el nuestro.
Sé que un día volveras.
A new winter has passed now
Since I saw you leave.
There is no world better than ours.
I know that one day you will return.
Pero el tiempo pasó,
No preguntes por qué
Él ya no regresó a nuestro hogar.
La frontera marcó
Su destino final
Y a mis brazos jamás volvío.
But the time passed,
Don’t ask why
He won’t return to our home now.
The border marked
His final destination
And to my arms he never returned.
Hoy es adios;
Mañana quizas.
Sé que tú vas a volver.
Hoy es adios;
Mañana quizas.
No hay fronteras en nuestro querer.
Today is goodbye;
Tomorrow, perhaps.
I know that you will return.
Today is goodbye;
Tomorrow, perhaps.
There are no borders in our love.
SPOKEN:
Vuelve hijo mio.
Aqui te espero.
Return, my son.
I wait for you here.
Hoy es adios;
Mañana quizas.
Sé que tú vas a volver.
Hoy es adios,
Mañana quizas.
No hay fronteras en nuestro querer.
Today is goodbye;
Tomorrow, perhaps.
I know that you will return.
Today is goodbye,
Tomorrow, perhaps.
There are no borders in our love.
Translation Notes:
Originally posted online August 7, 2007 on my old Geocities website (a now defunct webhosting service). It was moved to my LiveJournal site in 2008 and then to my songlations.com website in 2023.
This is a powerful song about the dangers of crossing the border without documents, the unknown outcome, and the loved ones left behind. A lot of people die or are detained indefinitely. You can help detained asylum seekers, immigrants, and refugees by donating to the Texas-based charity RAICES, the Refugee And Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.
—
Él ya no regresó a nuestro hogar
He won’t return to our home now
ya no regresó – implies certainty in that he didn’t return and won’t return
—
Desde que te ví marchar
Since I saw you leave
marchar (verb)= to march, in this case implies setting off on a journey
—
No hay un mundo mejor que el nuestro. / Sé que un día volveras.
There is no world better than ours. / I know that one day you will return.
This is an oblique reference and denial of the possibility that the man left and started a new life. His lover who was left behind is saying that this cannot be what he did; there is nothing better than their life together (their “world”).
Suggested songs:
Other good immigration songs are “Pa’l Norte” by Calle 13 (Spanish, energetic) and “Tony and Maria” by Los Lobos (English, melancholy).
Songlations 