About Songlations

What is Songlations? 

“Songlations” is a blog with English translations of Spanish song lyrics, intended for an audience interested in understanding the original Spanish lyrics. I try to strike a balance between fidelity and transparency, i.e. to be literal, but also sound natural. The translations are meant to be educational, so I will err toward a faithful translation if necessary. If the literal translation is too complicated, I will explain further in the translation notes instead. 

I assume that the people using these translations are learning Spanish, not native or heritage speakers. The translations are faithful to the meaning and phrasing of the lyrics. The notes at the end provide further clarification. Questions and comments are great, of course, and very welcome. 

My translations are not meant for karaoke or fandubs, but you are welcome to further edit my translations for those purposes. If the final work is available online, I’d love to see it! 

Who is the translator? 

I am Cairaguas Gonzalez, the translator, a fluent heritage speaker of Mexican Spanish (my home language). My parents are immigrants from Mexico. I was raised in California in a neighborhood with a dense Spanish-speaking immigrant population. I started translating as a hobby to maintain my Spanish vocabulary, spelling, and written grammar. 

I am only fluent in English and Spanish. I studied French for three years. I can read French, understand some French radio, and have very simple conversations with patient people. I took one semester in German and retained a little bit, but not enough to read, hear, or speak it. I watched enough subtitled anime during high school and college to remember some really common Japanese words and phrases. Anime and manga translators influenced my translation style by helping me realize what I like in translations: e.g. notes, explanations of puns or wordplay, not changing the literal meaning too much, but also not using unusual words or syntax or being too literal, etc.

The only languages I am comfortable speaking and listening to at a normal pace are English and Spanish.

Have you translated ________? 

Try a Google search limited to the old and new Songlations websites. Here is an example: 

Do you take requests?

I used to, but don’t anymore. Too many requests, not enough time to translate, sorry. If you suggest a song from a singer or band that I translate a lot, I’ll take it into consideration but it won’t be translated immediately.

What is the history of Songlations? 

2004-2009: I posted song translations to my Geocities website occasionally. The last two years, I was posting in LiveJournal but adding links to Geocities. Yahoo closed down all Geocities websites on October 2009.

2007-2016: I created and posted in Songlations at LiveJournal. I became more organized and serious about translating. I posted over 300 songs at LiveJournal.

2016-2021: Songlations was on hiatus due to a major life changes (graduating, new job with a longer commute and more computer work, family weddings & funerals, other things).

August 2021: I started testing different migration methods to move from LiveJournal to Blogger or WordPress.

September 2021-now: I moved to a WordPress site hosted at Songlations.com. The first years will be transitional (moving posts and re-adding formatting, replacing dead links, checking old comments, tagging posts). The old posts will keep their old post dates unless I make big edits. I plan to post new translations once or twice a month. I am not taking song requests at this time.

Social media? Spotify playlist?

You can find me on:

Spotify playlists:

This is also me, but I don’t currently use these for anything except bookmarking:

Can I re-post your translations on other websites?

No, don’t post my full translations somewhere else publicly. Anything that competes with my copyright and/or reduces the Google rankings or website traffic of Songlations is not allowed.

You may take quotes for “fair use” purposes such as school projects, discussion and criticism, art projects, English fandubs, and things like that. You can also use the full translations and notes for private educational purposes (not posted publicly). Please attribute the translation by linking back to or citing Songlations somewhere. If you are not sure, go ahead and ask me (Twitter @songlations.com).

How do I cite you?

Formal citations for school reports and similar projects: Let’s say that you are writing a report on student protests in Latin America and you want to cite the translated lyrics of “Shock” by Ana Tijoux. Here is how you do it. Assume today’s date is December 5, 2020. The translation was posted on March 31, 2012.

StyleCitation format
MLA styleGonzalez, Cairaguas. “‘Shock’ by Ana Tijoux, English translation of lyrics.” Songlations. LiveJournal, 31 Mar 2012. Web. 05 Dec 2020. <http://songlations.livejournal.com/51479.html >.
APA style, websiteGonzalez, C. (2012, March 31). “Shock by Ana Tijoux, English translation of lyrics. Songlations. Retrieved December 5, 2020, from http://songlations.livejournal.com/51479.html.
APA style, blogGonzalez, C. (2012, March 31). “Shock by Ana Tijoux, English translation of lyrics [Web log post]. Retrieved December 5, 2020, from http://songlations.livejournal.com/51479.html.
Chicago/Turabian styleGonzalez, Cairaguas. “‘Shock’ by Ana Tijoux, English translation of lyrics.” Songlations. http://songlations.livejournal.com/51479.html.

Informal citations: If you are quoting part of a translation somewhere online, a simple link back to the post or the main page is sufficient to make me very happy. Here is the HTML to turn text into a link: 

<a href="https://songlations.com">Songlations</a>

What do the abbreviations in your posts mean?

  • lit. = literally (what the words say exactly) 
  • alt. = alternative translation noun
  • m. = masculine noun
  • f. = feminine noun 
  • col. = colloquial 

Thank you for your support! These donations will help me offset the cost of WordPress fees and domain registration. I appreciate any amount!

Donate by PayPal (less fees taken away, so preferred):

PayPal provides a few different ways to send money. You can support me at the PayPal.com Songlations donation page or by sending money using paypal.me/songlations

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Amazon referral link (ID songlations-20):

If you wish to support Songlations a different way, I have a tracking ID for Amazon referrals. Click the following link, buy anything within 24 hours, and I get a small percentage as commission:

http://www.amazon.com/?tag=songlations-20

Spread the word and allow ads

Finally, just telling people about Songlations helps drive traffic to my blog. WordPress ads generate a little bit of money though not much currently, about $0.07 $0.10 per month since Songlations.com is still new, but that is more than I got from LiveJournal (nothing). In time, I hope increased traffic will make Songlations pay for itself.

Update 5/2023: I’m getting $0.80 to $1.50/month now. It’s going up!

Last edited May 28, 2023