Spanish songs translated to English with side-by-side lyrics and notes for Spanish learners
“Golden Times”
Album: Tiempos Dorados (Golden Times), 2025
Style: Nostalgic pop, reflective and sensual song.
Country: Mexico
Que vuelvan los tiempos dorados,
Los dulces futuros que tanto soñamos,
Que vuelva el misterio y el aburrimiento,
El no saber nada, el no saber nada.
Let them return, the golden times,
The sweet futures that we so dreamed of,
Let them return, the mystery and the boredom,
The not knowing anything, the not knowing anything.
“Morphine”
Album: Morfina (Morphine), 2025
Style: Alternative, indie. Introspective song about love and life. Per the artist, this song explores “el amor como una fuerza sanadora, casi medicinal” (love as a healing force, almost medicinal). The song is about how genuine connection can help overcome pain and insecurity. The music video shows a couple’s life from the start of their romance to their lives’ natural ends.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
No es real, yo pensar,
Que amar limitaba hasta ahí.
No volaba sin ti.
It isn’t real, I thought,
That loving stopped just before that.
I couldn’t fly without you.
“Ghosts”
Album: fantasmas (ghosts), 2023
About: Soft melancholy pop with mariachi and folk elements. A song of nostalgia, grief, and pain that pulls into the abyss. A serenade to saudade. Trigger warning for dark thoughts of wanting to join the ghosts.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Del gran sueño
No me quiero despertar,
Y me falla
Un poco más mi realidad.
From this great dream,
I don’t want to wake,
And it fails me
A bit more, my reality.
“Beloved Earth”
Album: Tierra Querida (Beloved Earth), 2022
Style: Soft acoustic pop. Natalia Lafourcade sings about love for her homeland’s natural beauty, and gratitude for everything she has received from the land.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Tierra querida que tanto me has regalado,
De la mañana tus besos, mi dulce aliento,
He respirado tus aires y tu nostalgia,
He saboreado las aguas de tu rocío.
Beloved earth that has gifted me so much,
From morning, your kisses, (and) my sweet breath,
I have inhaled your airs and your nostalgia,
I have savored the waters of your dew.
“Everything Happens” Lyrics Translation
Album: Amor Supremo (Supreme Love), 2015
Style: Pop/rock/emo with soft vocals. Melancholy love song to oneself about the struggle with depression, and about feeling awful when you think you should feel fine. It is a very personal song from Carla Morrison, and ultimately a hopeful song about wanting to fight through the darkness instead of giving up.
Country: USA (Arizona); Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Mi vista es distinta,
Es muy triste y contamina.
Quiero dejar de creer,
Estarme sola y no ver.
My sight is different,
It is so sad and contaminated.
I want to stop believing,
To be alone and not see.
“Stop Insisting, Heart” Lyrics
Album: Juan Gabriel con Mariachi Vol. II (1976); Vicente Fernandez (1978)
Style: Mariachi serenade asking either for love to be reciprocated, or for one’s heart to stop feeling unrequited love. The song is directed at both the love interest and at one’s own heart. Composed by Alberto Aguilera Valadez.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Quiere el corazón, lo quieras como yo te quiero,
No seas cruel, no hagas más grande este sufrimiento,
Él para quererte solo está latiendo,
Quiérelo tan solo un poco, te lo está pidiendo.
The heart wants, for you to love it as I love you,
Don’t be cruel, don’t extend this suffering,
My heart, to love you, only needs a pulse,
Love it just a bit, it is pleading to you.
“My Only Love” Lyrics
Album: Sin Pecado (Without Sin), 1996
Style: Cumbia, dance, love song about wanting to be together with your one special person, your only love, your true love.
Country: Mexico, Argentina
Listen: YouTube
Bueno —
Nos vamos con música, vengan ya,
A ver, las manos arriba y aplaudiendo todos, venga,
¡Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
¡Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!
“Another Page” Lyrics
Album: En Vivo (Live), 2005, Los Cadetes de Linares
Style: Regional Mexican song composed by Don Raul Ramírez García. It’s about starting a new chapter in life (another page) after ending a relationship. Happy new year! Updates will be less frequent this & next month due to the California fires. I’m ok but several people I know are affected by the smoke.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube (Los Cadetes de Linares); also Ezequiel Peña, Ariel Camacho
Ya es inútil que vuelvas, lo que fue, ya no es.
Es inútil que quieras comenzar otra vez.
No interrumpas mi vida, yo no te puedo amar.
Solo sé que, tu boca, no la vuelvo a besar.
It is pointless for you to return, what was, now isn’t.
It is pointless for you to want to start once again.
Don’t interrupt my life, I cannot love you.
I only know that — your mouth — I will not kiss again.
“Solitude and the Sea” Lyrics
Album: Musas (Muses), 2017
Style: Folk sentimental romantic, bolero song about being alone with the sea, feeling lonely but also relaxed, enjoying the ocean air. The music rises and falls like the waves.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
[Intro dialogue:]
¿Otra? ¿Nos echamos otra?
Another? Should we do another?
[Lyrics:]
En el canto de las olas,
Encontré un rumor de luz.
Por un canto de gaviotas
Supe que allí estabas tú.
In the song of the waves,
I found the rumor of a light.
By the cry of the seagulls
I knew you were there.
“The Miracles of Life” Lyrics
Album: Sin Pecado (Without Sin), 1996
Style: Cumbia love song telling a partner to take it slow so the relationship has time to mature.
Country: Mexico, USA
Listen: YouTube
Amor, no quisiera herirte,
Pues tú bien sabes cuánto te quiero.
Necesitamos darle tiempo al tiempo
Porque no quiero que empecemos mal.
Love, I would not want to hurt you,
After all, you know how much I love you.
We need to give time to time
Because I don’t want us to start off wrong.
“Let’s Go” Translated Lyrics
Album: Buenaventura (Good Adventure), 2016
Style: Pop. Cheerful and hopeful love song about taking the leap with another person, sharing the journey of life together. The translation is less literal than usual to keep a similar energy.
Country: USA
Listen: YouTube
Te busco
Porque eres mi corazón, mi amor, te busco
Porque a los placeres no le encuentro gusto,
Nada es igual si tú no estás.
I seek you out
Because you’re my heart, my love, I seek you out
Because the pleasures [of life] don’t interest me,
Nothing is the same if you aren’t around.
“Look at Me” Lyrics Translated
Album: Mírame (Look at Me), 2024
Style: Catchy pop dance song about how they’re doing well after a breakup. Look at them and how they thrive!
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Seguramente te enteraste (¿de qué?)
De que ando terroreando duro (¿por qué?)
Ya me mandaste otro mensaje (ya ves)
Tú sufres porque yo no sufro (otra vez)
Surely you’ve heard (of what?)
That I’m going aggressively hard (why?)
You already sent me another message (you see)
You suffer because I don’t (once again)
Songlations 
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