“Lining the Sun”
Album: Maná MTV Unplugged, 1999
Style: Rock, pining for love. It’s a common theme. He is desperate and melancholy for her love. She doesn’t pay attention to him. He can’t forget her. He claims it would be easier to reach the sun than her heart.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube, Amazon
Translation:
Rayando el sol,
Rayando por ti,
Esta pena me duele,
Me quema sin tu amor.
Lining the sun,
Lining (it) for you,
This sorrow hurts me,
It burns me without your love.
No me has llamado;
Estoy desesperado.
Son muchas lunas las que te he llorado.
You have not called me;
I am getting desperate.
I have cried you many a moon.
Rayando el sol, oh eh oh,
¡Desesperación!
Es más fácil llegar al sol que a tu corazón.
Lining the sun, oh eh oh,
Desperation!
It is easier to reach the sun than your heart.
Me muero por ti, oh eh oh,
Viviendo sin ti,
Y no aguanto,
Me duele tanto estar así,
Rayando el sol.
I am dying for you, oh eh oh,
Living without you,
And I can’t stand it,
It hurts me to be like this,
Lining the sun.
A tu casa yo fui,
Y no te encontré.
En el parque, en la plaza, en el cine
Yo te busqué.
I went to your home, [*lit. syntax: To your home, I went]
And did not find you.
In the park, at the plaza, at the cinema,
I looked for you.
Te tengo atrapada,
Entre mi piel y mi alma.
Más ya no puedo tanto
Y quiero estar junto a ti.
I have you trapped
In between my skin and my soul.
I can’t continue much longer
And I want to be near you.
Rayando el sol, oh eh oh,
¡Desesperación!
Es más fácil llegar al sol que a tu corazón.
Lining the sun, oh eh oh,
Desperation!
It is easier to reach the sun than your heart.
Rayando por ti,
Uuuuh, rayando, rayando el sol,
Ay, ay, ay, ay, rayando el sol,
Rayando por ti.
Lining for you,
Uuuuh, lining, lining the sun,
Ay, ay, ay, ay, lining the sun,
Lining for you.
Translation Notes:
“Rayando el sol” – ambiguity in the meaning:
If we look at this literally:
The verb rayar means to scratch or to line (una raya = a line). Alternative titles could have been “Scratching the Sun” or “Scrawling Over the Sun”.
Rayar can also refer to scribbling.
For example, mothers who catch their children drawing on walls with their crayons get mad and tell them, “no rayes ahí!” (don’t draw there!)
Finally, one last association for “rayando el sol“:
al rayar el día = at the break of day
In no way does rayar mean to physically break, however. It just refers to the time when you see the lining of the sun break the horizon; dawn.
If we look at it poetically: I think Maná just wants to image of trying to scratch/line the sun, not actually doing it.
Son muchas lunas las que te he llorado.
I have cried you many a moon.
It has been many moons that I have cried for you. [*literally]
Here, moons are months. Lots of time has passed and he still cries for her.
Más ya no puedo tanto / y quiero estar junto a ti
I can’t continue much longer / and I want to be near you.
Más ya no is a little tricky to translate. It means “no longer.” It is related to no más (no more).
no puedo tanto = I can’t very much; I’m at my limit.
I first translated and published this in 2006 at my Geocities pre-LiveJournal site (archived here). It took three years to re-post to Songlations because I was very indecisive about “scratching” vs. “lining”. There are still some lines where I think “scratching” may work better, but it’s so arbitrary. It is a preference thing and does not matter very much. Enjoy this old Maná song! (“Mana” without accents for the search engines.)
Songlations 