“Porque Te Vas” (Because You Leave) by Jeanette Anne Dimech, English translation

“Because You Leave” Lyrics
Album: Porque Te Vas (Because You Leave), 1974
Genre: Sad girl ballad. Yearning romantic ballad. She is sad about her lover leaving the city, worried that they will forget her.
Country: Spain

Lyrics Translation:

Hoy en mi ventana brilla el sol
Y el corazón se pone triste contemplando la ciudad,
Porque te vas.

Today into my window shines the sun
And the heart turns sad, contemplating the city,
Because you leave.

Como cada noche desperté, pensando en ti,
Y en mi reloj todas las horas vi pasar,
Porque te vas.

Just like every night, I awoke, thinking of you,
And on my clock, I watched the hours pass,
Because you leave.

Todas las promesas de mi amor se irán contigo,
Me olvidarás, me olvidarás.
Junto a la estación, hoy lloraré igual que un niño
Porque te vas, porque te vas, porque te vas, porque te vas.

All the promises of my love will leave with you,
You’ll forget me, you’ll forget me.
By the station, today I’ll cry like a child,
Because you leave, because you leave, because you leave, because you leave.

Bajo la penumbra de un farol, se dormirán
Todas las cosas que quedaron por decir, se dormirán.
Junto a las manillas de un reloj, esperaran
Todas las horas que quedaron por vivir, esperaran.

Below the gloom of a streetlight, they will sleep,
All the things left unsaid, they will sleep.
Next to the hands of a clock, they will wait,
All the hours left unlived, they will wait.

Todas las promesas de mi amor se irán contigo,
Me olvidarás, me olvidarás.
Junto a la estación, hoy lloraré igual que un niño,
Porque te vas, porque te vas, porque te vas, porque te vas.
(x3)

All the promises of my love will leave with you,
You’ll forget me, you’ll forget me.
By the station, today I’ll cry like a child,
Because you leave, because you leave, because you leave, because you leave.
(x3)

Translation Notes:

Porque te vas
Because you leave

¿Por qué te vas?
Why do you leave?

All the official titles I have found for this song use the first version, but the singer sometimes pauses melodically between “por” and “que”, which to me sounds like she is slipping into question mode occasionally. When she repeats it several times, it sounds to me like:

Because you leave, because you leave, ^{why do you leave?}, because you leave.

She is singing this song and explaining her gloomy mood, explaining that it is because her lover is leaving town. It is definitely supposed to be “because” most of the time… but sometimes… there’s a little of of “why”.

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Hoy en mi ventana brilla el sol
Y el corazón se pone triste contemplando la ciudad

[Chosen translation:]
Today into my window shines the sun
And the heart turns sad, contemplating the city

[More natural syntax in English, but less similar lyrically:]
Today the sun shines into my window
And my heart turns sad thinking about the city

The way the lyrics are sung is rhythmic and emphasizes nouns or important verbs at the ends of lines. The tone is sometimes passive, sometimes emotional. I tried to keep the same rhythm and pattern in the translation.

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Bajo la penumbra de un farol, se dormirán
Todas las cosas que quedaron por decir, se dormirán.
Junto a las manillas de un reloj, esperaran.

Below the gloom of a streetlight, they will sleep,
All the things left unsaid, they will sleep.
Next to the hands of a clock, they will wait.

Below the semi-light of a lamp, they will sleep,
All the things that were left waiting to be said, they will sleep.
Next to the hands of a clock, they will wait.

la penumbra, noun = the half-light, twilight, partial shadow, partial light, gloomy light, semi-darkness

el farol, noun = streetlight; lantern; lamp; car headlight

The noun farol can be translated differently depending on the country but it’s always a source of light that doesn’t fully light up the surroundings. Because she previously talked about the sun shining into her window, and then about hours passing by, and waking up at night, and things sleeping, I suspect that there is a streetlight shining into her bedroom window at night.

One could also assume that she means a dim bedside lamp, though I don’t know how often farol actually means lamp in Castillian Spanish. In Mexican Spanish (what I speak), a lamp is usually una lámpara.

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When writing the summary, I wrote “her guy”, then changed it to gender neutral “her lover” when I realized their gender is not actually established anywhere.

I point it out because many non-Spanish speakers learn that Spanish grammar has gendered nouns and incorrectly assume that Spanish in inherently anti-LGBT. As a translator, I try to fight that assumption by keeping translations gender neutral when gender wasn’t specified in the source material. You’re still allowed to assume that her lover is a guy. Statistically, it’s most likely true, so it makes sense to assume that. It just doesn’t have to be true.