“Pay Attention”, alt. “Look Closely”
Album: Fíjate Bien, 2000
Style: Pop/rock, anti-war song raising awareness to the conflict in Colombia. It won Best Rock Song at the 2001 Latin Grammy Awards.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
Translation:
Te han quitado lo que tienes,
Te han robado el pan del día,
Te han sacado de tus tierras
Y no parece que termina aquí.
They have taken away what you have,
They have stolen your daily bread,
They have taken you out of your lands
And it doesn’t look like it stops here.
Despojado de tu casa
Vas sin rumbo a la ciudad.
Sos el hijo de la nada.
Sos la vida que se va.
Stripped of your home
You head without a path toward the city.
You are the son sprung from nothing.
You are the life that fades away.
Son los niños, son los viejos,
Son las madres, somos todos, caminando
Y no te olvides de esto, no no no.
They are the children, they are the elderly,
They are the mothers, it is all of us, walking
And don’t forget about this, no no no.
Chorus:
Fíjate bien donde pisas,
Fíjate cuando caminas,
No vaya ser que una mina
Te desbarate los pies, (amor / por favor).
(x2)
Watch out where you step,
Pay attention when you walk,
Don’t let it be that a mine
Destroys your feet, (love / please).
(x2)
Ya no sé quien es el dueño
De tu vida y de la mía.
Sólo sé que hay un cuento
Que no parece que termina aquí.
I don’t know who is the owner anymore
Of your life and of mine.
All I know is that there’s a story
That doesn’t seem to end here.
Y como dicen en los diarios,
Y como dicen en la tele,
Y como dicen en la radio
Que no parece que termina aquí.
And like they say in the newspapers,
And like they say on the television,
And like they say on the radio
That it doesn’t seem to end here.
Son los niños, son los viejos,
Son las madres, somos todos, caminando
Y no te olvides de esto, no no no.
They are the children, they are the elderly,
They are the mothers, it is all of us, walking
And don’t forget about this, no no no.
[Chorus x2, “Fíjate bien donde pisas…“]
[Music bridge]
[Chorus x2, “Fíjate bien donde pisas…“]
Porque ellos no van a buscarte.
Ellos no van a salvarte.
Ellos no van, ellos no van, no no,
Y tú no lo vas a creer.
Because they are not going to look for you.
They are not going to save you.
They are not going to, not going to, no no,
And you are not going to believe it.
Translation Notes:
fíjate bien = pay attention, look well, look closely
fijarse (bien) = to pay attention; to watch out; to notice (especially well), to look (closely)
bien – adds that not only should one pay attention, one should pay attention well!
Te han quitado lo que tienes,
Te han robado el pan del día,
Te han sacado de tus tierras
They have taken away what you have,
They have stolen your daily bread,
They have taken you out of your lands (your ancestral homes)
The grandmother’s flashback scenes during Disney’s Encanto “Dos Oruguitas” song also show the conflict in Colombia, specifically the forced displacement of Columbian people that Juanes sings about. Since Encanto is a children’s movie, the grandmother’s remaining family was saved by a miracle, but even so the movie does a good job of showing the generational trauma that even a miracle-saved family suffers.
Te han robado el pan del día
They have stolen your daily bread
From the Christian prayer, “Padre Nuestro” (Our Father), which asks God for “our daily bread” which refers to food as well as everything else necessary for daily survival.
Despojado de tu casa
Stripped of your home
despojado (adj.) = bereft, denuded, stripped
Sos el hijo de la nada.
Sos la vida que se va.
You are the son sprung from nothing.
You are the life that fades away.
[More word-for-word literal:]
You are the son from the nothing.
You are the life that goes away.
(vos) sos = (tú) eres; looks like (vosotros) sois
Alternative conjugations of the verb ser (to be). See: Voseo.
Son las madres, somos todos, caminando
They are the mothers, it is all of us, walking
It is the mothers, it is all of us, walking [*alternative]
Notice the use of similar sounds to go from “they” to “us”: son, somos
(que) no vaya ser que una mina te desbarate los pies
don’t let it be that a mine destroys your feet
Subjunctive tense makes it sound like a hope.
Also See:
“Untados” by Aterciopelados – a song about armed conflicts in the jungles of Latin America
“La Democracia” by Mon Laferte – another song lamenting atrocities in Latin America
“Fijate Bien” by Juanes, song lyrics translation
Songlations 
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