Spanish songs translated to English with side-by-side lyrics and notes for Spanish learners
“If They Let Us”
Style: Ranchera, romantic song about leaving to a happy new beginning with your lover.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Si nos dejan,
Nos vamos a querer toda la vida.
Si nos dejan,
Nos vamos a vivir a un mundo nuevo.
If they let us,
We will love each other our whole lives.
If they let us,
We will go live in a new world.
“Bad Weed” or “Bad Plant”
Album: Quiero Verte Feliz (I Want to See You Happy), 2021
Style: Cumbia pop song about a bad person who lies and isn’t good to be around. The Marisoul has a great voice!
Country: USA (Los Angeles, CA)
Listen: YouTube
No quiero escucharte ya.
No vale ni un peso,
Tus palabras que se van
Como hojas en el viento.
I do not want to listen to you anymore.
They aren’t worth even a dollar,
Your words that fly
Like leaves in the wind.
“The Guy From Apartment 512” Lyrics and Cultural Meaning
Album: Amor Prohibido (Forbidden Love), 1994
Style: Tejano, Mexican cumbia. Song about having a crush on a neighbor and working up the courage to declare it to him.
Country: USA (Texas)
Listen: YouTube
Cada día es igual por mi pasillo.
Nunca llegó a mi puerta sin oír el chiflido
De un chavo que me dice que me está esperando.
Lo que él debería hacer es ir y darse un baño.
Every day is the same down my hallway.
I never get to my door without hearing the whistle
Of some guy who tells me that he’s waiting for me.
What he should do is go take a bath.
“You”
Album: Tú (You), 2020
Style: Love song of the Música Norteña genre, with a focus on vocals, accordions, and bass.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Eres más de lo que espero.
Si estos ojos no te miran, yo me desespero.
Si mis manos no te tocan, siento que me muero.
Necesito dosis diaria de tu dulce pelo.
You are more than I hoped for.
If those eyes don’t look at me, I get desperate.
If my hands don’t touch you, I feel that I die.
I need a daily dose of your sweet hair.
“Even If You’re Dying to Return”
Album: SEIS (SIX), 2021
Style: Operatic pop, post-breakup power fantasy, I’m fine but you’re not song.
Country: Chile, Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Ay, amor, amor,
Te quiero confesar que no hay rencor.
Yo siempre te querré sin condición.
Después de todo un año, yo te he perdonado.
Oh, love, love,
I want to confess to you that there is no resentment.
I will always love you without condition.
After a whole year, I have forgiven you.
Ay, qué mal que tú
Seguro has de pensar seguido en mí.
Te duele recordar quién soy, quién fui,
Yo sé, sigues amándome. Seguro, con el tiempo…
Oh, how awful that you
For sure think regularly of me.
It hurts you to remember who I am, who I was,
I know, you continue loving me. Surely, with time…
“If You Leave”
Album: ¿Dónde Están Los Ladrones? (Where Are the Thieves?), 1998
Style: Rock from Shakira’s brunette angry rocker days.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube, Amazon
Cuéntame, ¿qué harás después que estrenes su cuerpo?
¿Cuando muera tu traviesa curiosidad?
¿Cuando memorices todos sus recovecos
Y decidas otra vez regresar?
Ya no estaré aquí en el mismo lugar.
Tell me, what will you do after you try out her body?
When your mischevious curiosity dies?
When you memorize all her curves
And decide to return (to me)?
You won’t find me in the same place then.
“Democracy”
Album: SEIS (Six), 2021
Style: Cumbia about politics in Latin America, lamenting poor conditions and atrocities done in the name of democracy.
Country: Chile, Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Tú no tienes la culpa de que la plata a nadie le alcanza.
Tú no tienes la culpa de la violencia y de la matanza.
Así el mundo nos recibió: con muchas balas, poca esperanza.
Quiero que todo sea mejor, que se equilibre esa balanza.
It’s not your fault that money doesn’t stretch out far enough for anyone.
It’s not your fault, the violence and the killings.
This is how the world received us: with many bullets, little hope.
I want everything to be better, for that scale to balance.
“The Fall” Lyrics, lit. “The Impact” or “The Blast of Wind”
Style: Mariachi
Countries: United States (Texas), Mexico
Listen: This song is full of life advice and metaphors. It speaks about the fall of a great tree. It was so large, and it fell so hard. The song is covered on Selena Quintanilla-Pérez’s anthology album, disc 2. Listen to Flor Silvestre’s original version on YouTube.
Deja amistades pa’ cuando caigas,
Te den la mano.
Brinde una copa pa’ cuando llores,
Te den un trago.
Keep friendships so that when you fall,
They give you a hand.
Raise your glass (to others’ happiness) so that when you cry,
They give you a drink.
“Let No One Know of My Suffering”
Style: Varies, but commonly in the style of a Peruvian waltz
Composer: Ángel Cabral (Argentina), 1936
Songwriter: Enrique Dizeo (Argentina)
Country: Sung by many, originally from Argentina
Listen: Renditions available at YouTube by: Los Lobos (USA, 1970s-current), Julio Jaramillo (Ecuador, 1950s pasillo), Maria Dolores Pradera (Spain, 1950s operatic), Sonora Dinamita (Colombian and Salvadorean, 1980s+ cumbia), Julio Iglesias (Spain, 1980s romantic), Lucha Reyes (Peru, 1970s), 웅산 Woong San (Korea, in Spanish, 2010s), Edith Piaf (France, in French with edited lyrics as La Foule, 1957), and many more.
No te asombres si te digo lo que fuiste:
Una ingrata con mi pobre corazón.
Porque el fuego de tus lindos ojos negros [*alt: el brillo]
Alumbraron el camino de otro amor.
Don’t be surprised if I tell you what you were:
An ingrate with my poor heart.
Because the fire of your lovely black eyes [*alt: the shine]
Lit up the path to another love.
“Soul of Steel”
Style: Ranchera about having a strong center, able to withstand emotional blows by flighty lovers.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Podrás tener mucha suerte,
Podrás andar por el mundo
Destrozando corazones.
You can have lots of luck,
You can travel the world
Destroying hearts.
“Clandestine Love”
Album: Drama y Luz (Drama and Light), 2011
Style: Latin rock song with dual meaning, about hidden love, but also about undocumented immigrant youth (Dreamers).
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube, Amazon
Eres inevitable, amor,
Casi como respirar,
Casi como respirar.
You are inevitable, love,
Almost like breathing,
Almost like breathing.
“I Let Go of Your Rein”
Style: Corrido, ranchera, sometimes a mariachi. This popular Mexican song is an epic “you’ll miss me, but go” breakup song.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube (José Alfredo Jiménez, Maná, Lupillo Rivera, Vicente Fernandez, and many more)
Se me acabó la fuerza
De mi mano izquierda.
Voy a dejarte el mundo
Para ti solita.
I lost the strength
On my left hand.
I am going to leave you the world
For your very own.
Songlations 
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