Spanish songs translated to English with side-by-side lyrics and notes for Spanish learners
“Shadow of You” Lyrics
Album: ¿Dondé Están Los Ladrones? (Where Are The Thieves?), 1998
Style: Late 90’s rock, melancholy song about post-breakup sadness. Very mellow, sort of haunting.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
Voy a dejar
Que mi guitarra diga todo lo que yo
No sé decir por mí.
I am going to let
My guitar say everything that I
Cannot say for myself.
“Waka Waka This is Africa”
Official song of 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa; June 11 – July 11
Album: Sale El Sol (The Sun Comes Out), 2010
Country: Colombia
Style: Upbeat, cheerful. Note that Shakira has an official English version called “Waka Waka This Time for Africa.” This, however, is the translation of the Spanish version. It’s interesting to compare how different parts of the world will think of the FIFA 2010 song, since the lyrics are not completely the same.
Listen: YouTube Spanish version
Llego el momento,
Caen las murallas,
Va a comenzar
La única justa de la batallas.
The moment has come,
The walls fall,
It is going to begin,
The only one of the battles that is just.
“Give It To Me”
Album: Mi Sangre (My Blood), 2004
Style: Rock, shamelessly sleazy. Juanes wants to seduce a woman and “get to know her” tonight. Oh Juanes.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
Intro whispers:
Ey… sí, tú… sí, sí, tú que está ahí. Escucha, ey…
Hey… yeah, you… yeah, yeah, you right there. Listen, hey…
¿Qué tengo que hacer para tener
En mi labios esos tus labiecitos bonitos?
¿Qué te tengo que hacer para tener
De tu sabor un poquito?
What do I have to do to have
In my lips those pretty little lips of yours?
What do I have to do to have
Of your taste a little?
“A Type of Love”
Album: La Vida Es Un Ratico (Life is a Brief Moment), 2007
Style: Rock, bitter love, breakup. Juanes sings about a dysfunctional relationship at the point of breakup. If this is the type of love that is offered, Juanes doesn’t want it.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
Tú ya lo sabes que nadie como yo te amó,
Que nadie nunca te entregó
El corazón de la manera como lo hice yo.
You already know it, that nobody loved you like me,
That nobody ever surrendered
His heart to you the way that I did.
“The Cold Drop” Lyrics Translation
Composer: Emiliano Zuleta Baquero
Style: Vallenato, a genre from the Caribe (Caribbean) region of Colombia. The lyrics are about a 1938 feud between composers Emiliano Zuleta Baquero and Lorenzo Morales. The song has become a popular Colombian song.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube has various singers (Carlos Vives, Julio Iglesias, Aymée Nuviola)
Acordate [acuerdate] Moralito de aquel día
Que estuviste en Urumita
Y no quisiste hacer parranda.
Remember, Moralito, of that day
When you were in Urumita
And you didn’t want to go partying.
“I Ask God”
Album: Un Día Normal (A Normal Day), 2003
Style: Rock, hopeful for the future, love song
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
Que mis ojos se despierten
Con la luz de tu mirada, yo…
A Dios le pido.
That my eyes wake up
With the light of your gaze, I…
Ask God.
Que mi madre no se muera y
Que mi padre me recuerde,
A Dios le pido.
That my mother not die and
That my father remember me,
I ask God.
“As Long As I Have You”
Album: Laundry Service, 2001
Style: Pop/rock, love song bargain in an apocalypse scenario. She is willing to let a lot fall to ruin “as long as I have you.”
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube, Amazon
Que se arruinen los canales de noticias,
Con lo mucho que odio la televisión.
Que se vuelvan anticuadas las sonrisas,
Y se extingan todas las puestas de sol.
Let the news station channels fall to ruins,
I hate television anyway.
Let smiles become ancient relics,
And let all the rays of sunlight be extinguished.
“Dreams” Song Translation
Album: Mi Sangre (My Blood), 2004
Style: Rock, politically aware
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
Sueño libertad
Para todos los que están secuestrados hoy
En medio de la selva.
I dream of liberty
For all those who are kidnapped today
In the middle of the jungle.
Y sueño con la paz
De mi pueblo desangrado,
Y con el final
De esta injusta guerra.
And I dream of peace
(For) my hemorrhaged village,
And with the end
Of this unjust war.
“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.
“Your Guardian”
Album: Mi Sangre (My Blood), 2004
Style: Slow rock to a loved one, a soothing promise song saying you’ll protect them and telling them to sleep soundly. It sounds like a parent to a child, but the relationship isn’t specified so it could also be sung to a lover.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
Duermete pronto, mi amor
Que la noche ya llegó,
Y cierra tus ojos que yo
De tus sueños cuidaré.
Go to sleep soon, my love
That the night has come,
And close your eyes sure that I
Will guard your dreams.
“Rosario Tijeras”
Album: Mi Sangre (My Blood), 2004
Style: Pop/rock, wild west feel, biography of a (fictional) legend. The film Rosario Tijeras (2005) is the second highest grossing film in Colombia’s history. This song is the opening for one of the two novelas about Rosario Tijeras, a real tough lady.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
En la calle,
En la esquina,
En la plaza,
En la cuadra, Papá.
Está de vuelta la Rosario Tijeras
Pa’ que se escondan.
On the street,
On the corner,
On the plaza,
On the block, Daddy.
Rosario Tijeras has come back
So you (should) all flee.
“I Am Not Worth Anything Without Your Love”
Album: Mi Sangre (My Blood), 2004
Style: Soft rock, love song about feeling weak without them and strong with them.
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
Cuando el tiempo pasa
Y nos hacemos viejos,
Nos empieza a parecer
Que pesan más los daños
Que los mismos años al final
When time passes
And we grow old,
It starts to seem to us
That the harms weigh more
Than the very years in the end
Songlations 
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