“Accounts of the Soul”
Album: Escenas (Scenes), 1985
Style: Storytelling salsa, salsa consciente (socially conscious salsa). Story of a boy who watches his mother waste her life away pining for his father who left them.
Country: Panama
Lyrics Translation:
Siempre en la noche
Mi mamá buscaba el sueño
Frente a la televisión,
Y me pedía que por favor,
No la apagara.
Always at night
My mother sought sleep
In front of the television,
And she’d ask me please,
Don’t turn it off.
Su soledad en aquel cuarto cuarto
No aguantaba,
Aunque jamás lo confesó.
Her loneliness in that room
She could not stand,
Though she never admitted it.
Yo niño, no entendía su horror,
Porque uno es joven
Y no sabe del amor.
I, a boy, did not understand her horror,
Because one is young
And does not know of love.
Crecí mirando a mi madre vivir aferrada
A una esperanza que la enterró,
Toda amargada,
Dentro de una noche
Que no acabó.
I grew up watching my mother living tied
To a hope that buried her,
All embittered,
Inside of a night
That never ended.
Y mi madre le ha temido a la noche
Desde el día que se fue mi papá.
Y yo la miro y comprendo
Que ella aún piensa
Que las cuentas del alma
No se acaban nunca de pagar (x5).
And my mother has feared the night
Since that day that my father left.
And I watch her and I understand
That she still believes
That the accounts of the soul
Will never finish being paid.
Hoy día comprendo su dolor,
Y lo terrible que es amar
A una ilusión
Que está atrapada entre la sombra
Del pasado,
Y que en las noches se libera
Y va a su lado,
Como el fantasma de un amor
Que no murió.
Now today I understand her pain,
And how terrible it is to love
An illusion
That is trapped within the shadows
Of the past,
And that at night frees itself
And then by her side,
Like the phantom of a love
That didn’t die.
Mi madre le ha temido a la noche
Desde el día que se fue mi papá.
Hoy la miro y comprendo
Que ella aún piensa
Que las cuentas del alma
No se acaban nunca de pagar (x5).
My mother has feared the night
Since that day that my father left.
Today I watch her and I understand
That she still believes
That the accounts of the soul
Will never finish being paid.
Translation Notes:
I love Rubén Blades’ storytelling lyrics.
Yo niño, no entendía su horror,
Porque uno es joven
Y no sabe del amor.
I, a boy, did not understand her horror,
Because one is young
And does not know of love.
As a boy, I did not understand her horror,
Because (back then when) one is young
And does not understand love.
The man recalls his childhood, when he observed his mother suffering but did not understand it. He thinks back and considers, speaking impersonally, that young children don’t understand the obsessions and pain that love can bring.
Crecí mirando a mi madre vivir aferrada
A una esperanza que la enterró
I grew up watching my mother living tied
To a hope that buried her
aferrar, verb: to seize, to grasp; to moor (a ship); to furl
The mother was like a ship moored to the bay of hope. She could not let go. The adjective aferrada/aferrado can also mean “stubborn” but the lyrics syntax suggests ship imagery. She was not aferrada (stubborn), she was aferrada a ___ (moored to ___, tied to ___).
Y mi madre le ha temido a la noche
Desde el día que se fue mi papá.
And my mother has feared the night
Since that day that my father left.
And my mother she has felt fear for the night
Since the day that my father left.
It sounds like the man’s parents had an argument or some other falling out, then the father left. The mother cannot move on from that event and every night reminds her of his absence. Poor woman.
Las cuentas del alma
No se acaban nunca de pagar.
The accounts of the soul
Will never finish being paid.
The mother still loves her husband, despite him leaving his family. She metaphorically has an open bank account for him in her soul, and the currency is love. She cannot close the account. He is still withdrawing.
Hoy día comprendo su dolor,
Y lo terrible que es amar
A una ilusión
Que está atrapada entre la sombra
Del pasado,
Y que en las noches se libera
Y va a su lado,
Como el fantasma de un amor
Que no murió.
Now today I understand her pain,
And how terrible it is to love
An illusion
That is trapped within the shadows
Of the past,
And that at night frees itself
And then by her side,
Like the phantom of a love
That didn’t die.
Nowadays I comprehend her pain,
And how terrible it is to love
An illusion
That is trapped between the shadows
Of the past,
And that at night liberates itself
And goes to her side,
Like the ghost of a love
That didn’t die.
This poor woman’s past love is like vampire draining her life force at night. It sounds like something out of a gothic horror novel. What a sad childhood for the narrator!
“Cuentas Del Alma” (Accounts of the Soul) by Ruben Blades
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