Spanish songs translated to English with side-by-side lyrics and notes for Spanish learners
“Rosalinda”
Album: Arrasando (Razing), 2000
Style: Upbeat pop song about being in love and in lust with a girl named Rosalinda.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Cuando se tiene una razón
Para amar intensamente,
Se descubre de repente
Que por ti late más fuerte el corazón.
When one has a reason
To love intensely,
One suddenly finds
That for you, the heart beats stronger. [*alt. harder]
“Rare Sunday Afternoon” Lyrics
Album: La Barrera Del Sonido (The Sound Barrier), 2009
Style: Pop/rock, energetic, sounds cheerful, song about spending a weekend with a crush.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube, Amazon
Domingo por la tarde
Me vienes a buscar
Y vamos a perder el tiempo un rato.
Sunday (by the) afternoon
You come to look for me
And we go to waste some time.
“The Sea” Lyrics
Album: Frisbee, 2002
Style: Rock
Country: Venezuela
Listen: YouTube, Amazon
Yo no soy el Mar
Que es el agua y que es la sal.
Soy tan sólo una ola que
Vino, se rompió y después se fue.
I am not the Sea
That is the water and that is the salt.
I am nothing more than a wave that
Came, broke and then left.
“Disappearances” Song Translation
Album: Buscando America (Looking for America), 1984
Style: Political commentary, sad song
Countries: Panama, Mexico
Listen at YouTube: Rubén Blades, or Maná’s cover from their MTV Unplugged album
Que alguien me diga si han visto a mi esposo,
Preguntaba la Doña.
Se llama Ernesto X. Tiene cuarenta años.
Trabaja de celador, en un negocio de carros.
Llevaba camisa oscura y pantalón claro.
Someone tell me if they have seen my husband,
Asked the madam.
His name is Ernesto X. He is forty years old.
He works as a guard, in a car dealership business.
He had a dark shirt and light pants.
Salió anteanoche y no ha regresado
Y no sé ya qué pensar,
Pues esto antes no me había pasado.
Oooo…
He went out the night before last night and he has not returned
And I don’t know what to think anymore,
Because this had never happened to me before.
Oooo…
“Pain and Passion”
Album: Frisbee, 2002
Style: Emo rock about pain and wanting love.
Country: Venezuela
Listen: YouTube
Dolor, eres todo lo que tengo, tuve o haya tenido.
Yo te pido que no me hagas nunca más sentir dolor.
Dolor, se separa del placer por una línea delgada.
Otra velada, confrontada con la autoflagelación.
Pain, you are all I have, had, or have had.
I ask you that you never again make me feel pain.
Pain, it is separated from pleasure by a thin line.
Another evening, confronted with self-flagellation.
“The Universe Over Me”
Album: Pájaros en la cabeza (Birds on my head), 2005
Style: Folk pop/rock, about nostalgia and desire to find ones place in the world.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube
Sólo queda una vela
Encendida en medio de la tarta,
Y se quiere consumir…
There is only one candle left
Lit in the middle of the cake,
And it wants to die out…
“Love is Missing” Lyrics
Album: Maná MTV Unplugged, 1999
Style: Rock song, social commentary about homeless children and their difficult lives.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Hoy ya la libró de comer,
Pobre niño de la calle,
Pero hoy no la libró de dormir
Bajo la banca de un parque.
He got away not eating today,
Poor kid of the street,
But he didn’t get away not sleeping today
Below a bench in a park.
“Cold Sheets” Lyrics
Album: Revolución de Amor (Revolution of Love), 2002
Style: Salsa, rock song about wanting a lover to come back, and about the bed being cold without them.
Countries: Mexico, Panama
Listen: YouTube
Cómo me duele este frío
Aquí en mi cama.
Cómo yo extraño tus besos
En madrugada.
How it hurts me, this cold
Here in my bed.
How I miss your kisses
At the break of dawn.
“Shared Lips” Lyrics Translation
Album: Amar Es Combatir (To Love is to Fight), 2006
Style: Rock, unhappy love song about an unfaithful lover or a lover who doesn’t commit to you. The album won a 2007 Grammy Award for “Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album”.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Amor mío,
Si estoy debajo del vaivén de tus piernas,
Si estoy hundido en un vaivén de caderas,
Esto es el cielo, es mi cielo.
My love,
If I am beneath the see-saw of your legs,
If I am sunken in a see-saw of hips,
This is heaven, it is my heaven.
“Absurd Cinderella” Lyrics
Album: Absurda Cenicienta, 2007
Style: Pop, about discovered betrayal.
Countries: Spain, Argentina
Listen: YouTube, Amazon
En un bar de mi barrio que no quiero recordar,
Vi a mi novio besando a mi amiga.
El dolor de saborear veneno tan letal,
Perder tiempo en dos seres que quería.
In a bar of my neighborhood that I do not want to remember,
I saw my boyfriend kissing my friend.
The pain of tasting poison so lethal,
To waste time on two beings that I loved.
“When You No Longer Love Me” Lyrics
Album: Julio Jaramillo, 1966
Style: Pasillo about being in love and seeing the end of the relationship in sight, and being determined to take it well when it does finally end. Since this is a famous old song, there are several renditions from all over Latin America. It is a good song for accent study.
Country: Ecuador
Listen: YouTube, Amazon, and scroll down for other renditions.
Cuando ya no me quieras,
No me finjas cariño,
No me tengas piedad,
Compasión ni temor.
When you no longer love me,
Do not fake me tenderness,
Do not have mercy on me,
(Nor) compassion nor fear.
“Resurrection” Translated
Album: Pájaros en la cabeza (Birds on my head), 2005
Style: Pop/rock, happy emo song that could be interpreted as romantic or as Christian rock. It’s a good song for Holy Week.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube
Uuuh~ Uuuh~ Uh uh uh uh~ Uuuh~
Siento que mi alma se encuentra perdida,
Que se junta la noche y el día.
I feel that my soul finds itself lost,
That the night and the day join together.
Songlations 
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