Spanish songs translated to English with side-by-side lyrics and notes for Spanish learners
“The Universe Over Me”
Album: Pájaros en la cabeza (Birds on my head), 2005
Style: Folk pop/rock, about nostalgia and desire to find ones place in the world.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube
Sólo queda una vela
Encendida en medio de la tarta,
Y se quiere consumir…
There is only one candle left
Lit in the middle of the cake,
And it wants to die out…
“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
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.
“Cold Sheets” Lyrics
Album: Revolución de Amor (Revolution of Love), 2002
Style: Salsa, rock song about wanting a lover to come back, and about the bed being cold without them.
Countries: Mexico, Panama
Listen: YouTube
Cómo me duele este frío
Aquí en mi cama.
Cómo yo extraño tus besos
En madrugada.
How it hurts me, this cold
Here in my bed.
How I miss your kisses
At the break of dawn.
“Shared Lips” Lyrics Translation
Album: Amar Es Combatir (To Love is to Fight), 2006
Style: Rock, unhappy love song about an unfaithful lover or a lover who doesn’t commit to you. The album won a 2007 Grammy Award for “Best Latin Rock/Alternative Album”.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Amor mío,
Si estoy debajo del vaivén de tus piernas,
Si estoy hundido en un vaivén de caderas,
Esto es el cielo, es mi cielo.
My love,
If I am beneath the see-saw of your legs,
If I am sunken in a see-saw of hips,
This is heaven, it is my heaven.
“Absurd Cinderella” Lyrics
Album: Absurda Cenicienta, 2007
Style: Pop, about discovered betrayal.
Countries: Spain, Argentina
Listen: YouTube, Amazon
En un bar de mi barrio que no quiero recordar,
Vi a mi novio besando a mi amiga.
El dolor de saborear veneno tan letal,
Perder tiempo en dos seres que quería.
In a bar of my neighborhood that I do not want to remember,
I saw my boyfriend kissing my friend.
The pain of tasting poison so lethal,
To waste time on two beings that I loved.
“When You No Longer Love Me” Lyrics
Album: Julio Jaramillo, 1966
Style: Pasillo about being in love and seeing the end of the relationship in sight, and being determined to take it well when it does finally end. Since this is a famous old song, there are several renditions from all over Latin America. It is a good song for accent study.
Country: Ecuador
Listen: YouTube, Amazon, and scroll down for other renditions.
Cuando ya no me quieras,
No me finjas cariño,
No me tengas piedad,
Compasión ni temor.
When you no longer love me,
Do not fake me tenderness,
Do not have mercy on me,
(Nor) compassion nor fear.
“Resurrection” Translated
Album: Pájaros en la cabeza (Birds on my head), 2005
Style: Pop/rock, happy emo song that could be interpreted as romantic or as Christian rock. It’s a good song for Holy Week.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube
Uuuh~ Uuuh~ Uh uh uh uh~ Uuuh~
Siento que mi alma se encuentra perdida,
Que se junta la noche y el día.
I feel that my soul finds itself lost,
That the night and the day join together.
“The Storm Will Come” Song Lyrics Translated
Style: Bob Dylan tribute, released 2008 for La Exposición Internacional de Zaragoza, a festival in Spain. This is a tribute to Bob Dylan’s A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall. The lyrics are similar in many parts, but with slight variations.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube
Me han dicho que has vuelto por fin a tu casa.
¿Qué has visto en tu viaje por tierras lejanas?
They have told me that you’ve finally returned home.
What have you seen in your travel through far away lands?
“I Need You” Translation
Album: Te necesito (I need you), 2002
Style: Emo rock song about desperate love.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube
Oh, ¿cómo quieres que me aclare?
Si aún soy demasiado joven
Para entender lo que siento.
Oh, how do you want me to clarify myself?
If I am still too young
To understand what I feel.
“Hate Me” Lyrics
Style: Pasillo, post-breakup song, asking for anything but indifference. Julio Jaramillo’s lyrics are always emotional poetry.
Country: Ecuador
Listen: Julio Jaramillo (original), La Santa Cecilia ft. Noel Schajris (live cover)
Ódiame por piedad, yo te lo pido.
Ódiame sin medida ni clemencia.
Odio quiero más que indiferencia,
Porque el rencor quiere menos que el olvido.
(x2)
Hate me for mercy’s sake, I ask (this of) you.
Hate me without measure or clemency.
I want hate more than indifference,
Because resentment asks less than oblivion.
(x2)
“Tainted” Song Translation
Style: Slow rock, cynical but interesting. Song about corruption and crime.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
En el país del sagrado corazón
A nadie se le puede dar la absolución,
Cuando el billete es emperador.
In the country of the sacred heart
Absolution can be given to nobody,
When the banknote is emperor.
“Evil”
Album: Pafuera Telaraña (Outtahere, Spiderwebs), 2005
Style: Rock/flamenco/hip hop, wispy voice, anti-domestic violence. This artist won a Latin Grammy for Best New Artist in 2005.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube
Apareciste una noche fría
Con olor a tabaco sucio y a ginebra,
El miedo ya me recorría
Mientras cruzaba los deditos tras la puerta.
You appeared one cold night
With the smell of dirty tobacco and of Ginebra, [*brand of alcohol]
The fear already ran through me
While I crossed my little fingers behind the door.
Songlations 
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