Spanish songs translated to English with side-by-side lyrics and notes for Spanish learners
“Destiny”
Album: Fíjate Bien (Pay Attention), 2000
Style: Pop/rock. This album won “Best Rock Solo Vocal Album” and “Best New Artist” at the 2001 Latin Grammy Awards.
Country: Colombia
Estoy buscando una forma de ver
Detrás de los espejos del alma,
Más adentro donde está la luz
Que quema, pero que no mata.
I am searching for a way of seeing
Behind the mirrors of the soul,
Deeper inside where there’s the light
That burns, but does not kill.
“Lining the Sun”
Album: Maná MTV Unplugged, 1999
Style: Rock song about pining for love. It’s a common theme in Maná’s songs. He is desperate and melancholy for her love. She doesn’t pay attention to him. He can’t forget her. He claims it would be easier to reach the sun than her heart.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube, Amazon
Rayando el sol,
Rayando por ti,
Esta pena me duele,
Me quema sin tu amor.
Lining the sun,
Lining (it) for you,
This sorrow hurts me,
It burns me without your love.
No me has llamado;
Estoy desesperado.
Son muchas lunas las que te he llorado.
You have not called me;
I am getting desperate.
I have cried you many a moon.
“Nothing”
Album: Fíjate Bien (Pay Attention), 2000
Style: Pop/rock, declaration of apathy, slow tempo
Country: Colombia
Listen: YouTube
Ya no tengo sufrimiento.
Ya no tengo quién me mienta.
Ya no tengo a quién contarle
Lo que tengo en mi cabeza.
I no longer suffer.
I no longer have someone to lie to me.
I no longer have someone to talk about
What goes on in my head.
“Barbie of the Suburbs”, 2010
Style: Rock, bitter ex song
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube
En la guerra, como en el amor,
Todo vale y siempre queda un perdedor.
Normalmente, pierde el que quiere más,
Al igual que en una mesa de black jack.
In war, like in love,
All’s fair and there is always a loser.
Usually, the loser is the one who loves the most,
Just like in a black jack table.
“Treacherous Butterfly” Translated Lyrics
Album: Revolución de Amor (Revolution of Love), 2002
Style: Rock, butterfly as metaphor for a woman who isn’t serious, fluttering from guy to guy and leaving behind heartbreak. One of my most popular translations.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Eres como una mariposa,
Vuelas y te posas, vas de boca en boca,
Facil y ligera, de quien te provoca.
You are like a butterfly,
You fly and you land, jumping from mouth to mouth —
Easy and light — of anyone who excites you.
“Photograph”
Album: Un Día Normal (A Normal Day), 2002
Style: Soft rock, nostalgic, about long-distance love whether romantic or platonic. The love is there but they have a hard time getting in touch, so they look at photographs instead.
Country: Colombia (Juanes), Canada (Nelly Furtado)
Listen: YouTube
Cada vez que yo me voy,
Llevo a un lado de mi piel
Tus fotografías para verlas cada vez
Que tú ausencia me devora entero el corazón
Y yo no tengo remedio más que amarte.
Every time that I leave,
I carry by my skin [*lit. I carry to the side of my skin]
Your photographs, to see them every time
That your absence eats my heart whole
And I have no other choice but to love you.
“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.
“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.
“Ana” Lyrics Translation
Album: Maná: MTV Unplugged, 1999
Style: Accoustic rock. Story of teen tragedy. Ana is a teen with an unplanned pregnancy, she knows her parents won’t support her, and she’s feeling real desperate.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Ana tiene quince.
Niña se le vino un problemón.
Algo está creciendo,
En su vientre hay algo en expansión.
Ana is fifteen.
Girl finds herself with a huge problem.
Something is growing,
In her womb something expanding.
“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.
“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.
Songlations 
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