“Falta Amor” (Love is Missing) by Maná, English translation of lyrics

“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

Translation:

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.

No tiene padres ni tutores,
Ni nadie que lo quiera.
Hormigas, moscas y ratones,
Únicas compañeras.

Doesn’t have parents or tutors,
Or anyone who wants him (loves him).
Ants, flies and mice,
(His) only companions.

Falta amor, mucho amor,
Falta amor, falta amor~

Love is missing, lots of love,
Love is missing, love is missing~

Un pequeño de apenas ocho años
Va colgado en el tranvía.
A nadie le importa, a nadie le preocupa la caída.

A little one of barely eight years
Is hanging onto the streetcar.
No one cares, no one worries over the (his) fall.

Y es que le falta edad, o le sobra la soledad,
Pero el caso es que él duerme estrechando la gran ciudad.

And it’s just that he lacks age, or that he has too much loneliness,
But the point is that he sleeps embracing the great city.

Chorus:
———————————-
Falta amor, mucho amor,
Falta amor, falta amor~

Love is missing, lots of love,
Love is missing, love is missing~

¿Cómo dejarles al olvido?
¿Cómo dejarles sin abrigo?
Es imposible ignorarlos,
Y a veces…
Falta amor (x3)

How (can we) leave them to oblivion?
How (can we) leave them without a coat?
It’s impossible to ignore them,
And sometimes…
Love is missing (x3)
———————————-

El niño tiene un guardian flaco, fiel y cariñoso,
Un perro callejero, escudero llamado “Oso.”
No se pueden morir, no dejan de sufrir,
Pero juntos se la ingenian, se la rifan para sobrevivir.

The kid has a guardian, scrawny, loyal and affectionate,
A street dog, a sidekick named “Bear.”
They can’t die, they don’t stop suffering,
But together they manage, they work their luck to survive.

[Chorus]

Translation Notes:

This song was originally translated around 2006 (posted on the soon-to-close Geocities website).

—

Falta amor
Love is missing
Love is lacking

—

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 below a bench in a park.

(Hoy) {ya la libró} [de comer], <pobre niño> (de la calle),
(Today) {he has already freed/disencumbered himself} [from eating], <poor boy> (of the street)

<Pero> (hoy) {no la libró} [de dormir]
<But> (today) {he did not free/disencumber himself} [from sleeping]

<Bajo> (la banca) [de un parque].
<Below> (the bench) [of a park].

—

Y es que le falta edad, o le sobra la soledad
And it’s just that he lacks age, or that he has too much loneliness

This line has nice parallel verbs that don’t work as well in English.
faltarle = to lack; edad = age
sobrarle = to have in excess; soledad = solitude/loneliness

—

Pero el caso es que él duerme estrechando la gran ciudad.
2006: But the point is that he sleeps, mingling in this great city.
2009: But the point is that he sleeps embracing the great city.

I get this mental image of a boy sleeping in a park, hugging the city to himself like a blanket, because he has no material blanket.

My idea in 2006 was that he was sort of becoming part of the city itself, but that seems like too much unnecessary interpretation now.

—

Un perro callejero, escudero llamado “Oso.”
A street dog, a sidekick named “Bear.”

escudero = literally: squire. It can also mean henchman. I took some license and translated it as sidekick.

—

Pero juntos se la ingenian, se la rifan para sobrevivir.
But together they manage, they work their luck to survive.

ingeniar = to invent, to contrive
ingeniarselas = to manage (usually through wits and resourcefulness)

rifar = to raffle
This verb isn’t meant literally. It just means that they’re trying, that they’re using their luck.

—

“Falta Amor” by Mana, Spanish lyrics translated to English