“Jueves” (Thursday) by La Oreja de Van Gogh, English translation and meaning

“Thursday” Lyrics
Album: A Las Cinco En El Astoria (Five o’ Clock at the Astoria), 2008
Style: Bittersweet romance song tied to a historical event. Two train riders with mutual crushes finally confess their interest in each other. This song is dedicated to the victims of the 2004 Madrid train bombing. Per the band, news of tragedies often focuses on the statistics, but they wanted to humanize the individual lives lost.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube

Translation:

Si fuera más guapa y un poco más lista,
Si fuera especial, si fuera de revista,
Tendría el valor de cruzar el vagón
Y preguntarte quién eres.

If I were more beautiful and a bit smarter,
If I were special, if I were from magazines,
I would have the courage to cross the passenger car
And ask you who you are.

Te sientas en frente y ni te imaginas
Que llevo por ti mi falda más bonita.
Y al verte lanzar un bostezo al cristal,
Se inundan mis pupilas.

You sit in front and you do not even know
That I am wearing my prettiest skirt for you.
And on seeing you launch a yawn at the glass,
My pupils flood.

Chorus:
————————————————————
De pronto me miras, te miro y suspiras,
Yo cierro los ojos, tú apartas la vista,
Apenas respiro, me hago pequeñita
Y me pongo a temblar. [*ponerse (verb) = to set down to; to start/begin to]

Suddenly you look at me, I see you and you sigh,
I close my eyes, you look away,
I barely breathe, I make myself small
And I begin to tremble.
————————————————————

Y así pasan los días, de lunes a viernes,
Como las golondrinas del poema de Bécquer,
De estación a estación, enfrente tú y yo,
Va y viene el silencio.

And the days pass like this, from Monday to Friday,
Like the swallows in Bécquer’s poem,
From station to station, you and me in front,
The silence comes and goes.

[Chorus: De pronto me miras, te miro y suspiras…]

Y entonces ocurre, despiertan mis labios,
Pronuncian tu nombre tartamudeando.
Supongo que piensas qué chica más tonta
Y me quiero morir.

And then it happens, my lips wake up,
They pronounce your name, stammering.
I expect that you think “what a stupid girl”
And I want to die.

Pero el tiempo se para y te acercas diciendo,
Yo no te conozco y ya te echaba de menos.
Cada mañana rechazo el directo
Y elijo este tren.

But time stops and you come closer, saying,
I do not know you and I was already missing you.
Every morning I reject the direct (train)
And choose this one (this train).

Y ya estamos llegando, mi vida ha cambiado,
Un día especial, este once de marzo.
Me tomas la mano, llegamos a un túnel
Que apaga la luz.

And we are arriving, my life has changed,
A special day, this eleventh of March.
You take my hand, we come to a tunnel
That turns off the light.

Te encuentro la cara, gracias a mis manos,
Me vuelvo valiente y te beso en los labios.
Dices que me quieres y yo te regalo
El último soplo de mi corazón.

I find your face, thanks to my hands,
I turn brave and I kiss you on the lips.
You say that you love me and I give you
The last murmur of my heart.

Translation Notes:

Si fuera más guapa y un poco más lista…

If I were more beautiful and a bit smarter…

The protagonist of the song is insecure. She has a crush on a man she regularly sees on the train, but she has not yet had the courage to approach him. She keeps waiting for another day when she might be braver. This creates dramatic tension for us, who know that these two people will be victims in a train bombing.

---

Te sientas en frente y ni te imaginas
Que llevo por ti mi falda más bonita.
Y al verte lanzar un bostezo al cristal,
Se inundan mis pupilas.

You sit in front and you do not even know
That I am wearing my prettiest skirt for you.
And on seeing you launch a yawn at the glass,
My pupils flood.

[More literal:]
You sit yourself in front and do not even imagine/consider/realize
That I have on, for you, my prettiest skirt.
And on seeing you throw a yawn toward the crystal/glass [*referring to the window]
My pupils flood.

“Crystal“ is a fancier word for glass. It refers to the train window.

Pupils flooding refers to the pupillary response, an involuntary dilation of the pupils that happens when you view something attractive.

---

Y así pasan los días, de lunes a viernes,
Como las golondrinas del poema de Bécquer

And the days pass like this, from Monday to Friday,
Like the swallows in Bécquer’s poem

Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer is a Spanish Romantic poet and short story writer from the 1800s. The poem referenced here is “Volverán las oscuras golondrinas” (The dark swallows will return), a poem about the swallows returning to their nesting grounds. The two train riders of this story also return to this train, Monday through Friday.

---

Y entonces ocurre, despiertan mis labios,
Pronuncian tu nombre tartamudeando.

And then it happens, my lips wake up,
They pronounce your name, stammering.

Today of all days, our protagonist gains the courage to initiate a conversation. She is still self-conscious and timid, but she speaks her crush’s name to get his attention.

---

Supongo que piensas qué chica más tonta
Y me quiero morir.

I expect that you think “what a stupid girl”
And I want to die.

After catching his attention, she immediately becomes anxious and imagines the worst. He won’t be interested! He will think she is dumb! She wants to die of embarrassment. The casual phrase “me quiero morir” (I want to die), not intended literally, increases dramatic tension if you know what is about to happen. If you are not aware of what this song is about, the phrase doesn’t seem out of place. We have all had moments of sudden embarrassing regret like this.

Also note this common phrase structure:

qué chica más tonta = what girl most stupid [*word-for-word literal]

qué [noun] más [adjective]
what [noun] most [adjective]

---

Pero el tiempo se para y te acercas diciendo,
Yo no te conozco y ya te echaba de menos.
Cada mañana rechazo el directo
Y elijo este tren.

But time stops and you come closer, saying,
I do not know you and I was already missing you.
Every morning I reject the direct (train)
And choose this one (this train).

Her crush responds positively! Her tells her that he likes when he sees her, even though he doesn’t know her. He tells her that he gets on this specific train so that he can see her, when there is another faster train he could take instead. Oof, this adds to the tragedy for us (the audience), but for them it is romantic. For them, this is a good day.

---

Y ya estamos llegando, mi vida ha cambiado,
Un día especial, este once de marzo.

And we are arriving, my life has changed,
A special day, this eleventh of March.

They are almost at their train stop. This train ride has been transformative for them both. They finally introduced themselves to each other after so many train rides of sneaking glances at each other, interested but shy. Finally they met! Our protagonist notes the date with happiness so she can remember it later.

---

Me tomas la mano, llegamos a un túnel
Que apaga la luz.

You take my hand, we come to a tunnel
That turns off the light.

The train tunel is a metaphor for their lives. To them, it is a metaphor of transformation because they have just started a relationship and they are feeling hopeful for the future. They are holding hands, happy, and they expect to see the light at the other end of the tunel.

To us, the tunnel is a metaphor for their lives coming to an end. The juxtaposition between what these two feel and what we know is coming for them makes this song tragic.

---

Te encuentro la cara, gracias a mis manos,
Me vuelvo valiente y te beso en los labios. 
Dices que me quieres y yo te regalo 
El último soplo de mi corazón.

I find your face, thanks to my hands,
I turn brave and I kiss you on the lips. [*volver (verb) = to turn; to return; to become]
You say that you love me and I give you [*regalar (verb) = to gift]
The last murmur of my heart.

Te encuentro la cara = I find your face
Encuentro tu cara = I find your face

Te… makes it sound more intimate.

And here we come to the end of the song. These two lovers kiss in a moment of romantic bravery, and this moment unfortunately becomes their last. The song is both romantic and sad, truly bittersweet. The story feels romantic and hopeful in-universe, with two people confessing their crushes to each other and looking forward to the future. La Oreja de Van Gogh lays out the beginning of a romance and then real world events abruptly end it. We are left to mourn the tragedy of lives cut short.

Historical Notes:

La Oreja de Van Gogh released this song in 2008 to commemorate the victims of the March 11, 2004 terrorist attack in Madrid.

According to La Oreja de Van Gogh from their official blog, found via the Wikipedia article on this song:

Jueves es una historia de amor sobre la que nunca hubiéramos querido escribir. Es una canción especial, quizá la más especial que nunca hayamos escrito. Nace de la necesidad de destacar cada una de las pequeñas grandes historias que demasiadas veces las estadísticas terminan eclipsando. Por una vez y durante apenas cinco minutos de música, aquel 11 de marzo de 2004 vuelve a ser sencillamente “Jueves”.

Translated by me:

Juevez is the kind of love story we would never have wanted to write about. It is a special song, perhaps the most special we ever wrote. It was brought about [*lit. born] by the need to highlight every single one of the small great stories that too often statistics end up eclipsing. For once and for just barely five minutes of music, that 11th of March in 2004 becomes again, just simply, “Thursday.”