Spanish songs translated to English with side-by-side lyrics and notes for Spanish learners
“She”
Album: Joel Nava (Joel Nava), 1995
About: Soft, slow melancholy song about accepting the end of a relationship. Acoustics and vocals only, very raw. It would be a good song for students to sing. It’s slow enough and will let you practice pronunciation.
Country: USA (Texas)
Listen: YouTube
Me cansé de rogarle,
Me cansé de decirle que yo sin ella
De pena muero.
I got tired of begging her,
I got tired of telling her that I, without her,
Of grief would die.
“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.
“What Will Become of Me” Lyrics
Album: Epicentro (Epicenter), 2021
Style: Soft pop song about a being in a turbulent and hot/cold relationship with a bad boy. She loves him but he ignores her and that makes her mad.
Country: Spain
Listen: YouTube
Jugamos a dejar las cosas claras,
No fue suficiente.
Ven y mírame de frente.
No despiertes a la fiera.
We played at making things clear,
It wasn’t enough.
Come and see me face to face.
Don’t wake up in a foul mood.
Dejémonos de hablar de forma rara,
No sé lo que sientes.
Yo sé que siempre fuiste un delincuente
Y aunque me digas que no soy cualquiera,
Me quema.
“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.
“I’ll See You At the Exit” Lyrics
Album: Puro Teatro (Pure Theater), 2020
Style: 1980s-style pop/rock about a forbidden or unconventional relationship. The singer wants to end the secrecy and come out into the open.
Country: Argentina
Listen: YouTube
No, ya no quiero soñar con tu sombra
Y tener que olvidarla de día.
Sé que es difícil, lo sé,
Que hay peligro también,
Que es historia prohibida.
No, I don’t want to dream of your shadow
And have to forget it by day.
I know it is difficult, I know,
That there’s danger also,
That it is a forbidden story.
“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 Alms”
Songwriter: Horacio Sanguinetti (pen name of Horacio Basterra)
Style: Tango ballad about charity and poverty. An orphan on the streets tries unsuccessfully to beg outside of a rich party. Help fight hunger by donating to Feeding America or your local food bank.
Country: Uruguay (Horatio Sanguinetti); Ecuador (Julio Jaramillo)
Listen: This is an old song that has many renditions, including one from the prolific early-mid 20th century singer Julio Jaramillo (YouTube). Also sung by Jose Manuel Calderon, Juan Bautista, Juan José Guichandut (music composer), and others.
[Alternative lyrics are shown for the underlined text. The alternative shown is for Julio Jaramillo’s version.]
En la puerta de un palacio, un pobre niño mendigaba:
“¡Tengo hambre, tengo frío, tenga usted de mí, piedad!*” [*underlined alt. piedad de mi!]
Era agosto, pleno invierno y la lluvia taladraba
A su débil cuerpecito que era carne de orfandad.
At the door of a palace, a poor boy begged:
“I am hungry, I am cold, have you for me, pity!*” [*underlined alt. pity for me!]
It was August, in the middle of winter and (with) the rain striking down
On his weak little body which was the flesh of orphanhood.
“Reminiscences” Lyrics
Style: Pasillo romance song from mid-20th century Ecuador about remembering a past lover. Pasillo is like Latin American bolero music (romantic lyrics) and European waltz (musical sound), but includes guitar, mandolin, and other string instruments in addition to piano. No one is better at romantic poetry than Julio Jaramillo.
Country: Ecuador
Listen: YouTube
Amada, es imposible borrar de mi memoria,
Me persigue el recuerdo de tu extraño mirar,
Esa risa tan tuya, tus labios tentadores,
Que dejaron su encanto prendido en mi ansiedad.
Beloved, it is impossible to erase from my memory,
It pursues me, the memory of your strange gaze,
That laugh so yours, your lips so tempting,
Who left their enchantment aflame in my restless mind.
“Foreign Land” Lyrics
Album: Amor Supremo (Supreme Love), 2015
Style: Alternative rock song about wanting to be chaste, but struggling with new and foreign feelings and desires.
Country: Mexico; USA
Listen: YouTube
Y tú, ¿quién te crees?
Enamorandome así,
Sin pedirle permiso a Dios,
Enredándome en locura.
And you, who do you think you are?
Making me fall for you like this,
Without asking God for permission,
Entangling me in lunacy.
“Supermarket” Lyrics Translation
Album: 1940 Carmen, 2021
Style: Alternative rock song about a couple shopping at a supermarket after a fight, avoiding looking at each other, and suffering.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
Pasillo 2 me invita a comprar
Cosas que no hacen falta,
Y el alivio comercial, y la risa falsa.
Aisle two invites me to buy
Things that aren’t needed,
And the consumerist relief, and false laughter.
“Finding Myself”
Album: El Renacimiento (The Rebirth), 2022
About: Pop. Carla’s heartfelt song about reckoning with depression and her journey for mental health.
Country: Mexico, USA (Arizona)
Listen: YouTube
Se acabó, ya la mentira está en mi cuerpo.
Toda esta falsedad ha roto mis adentros.
Entregué mi todo, olvidé mi centro,
Cedí por apostar, soy infeliz, es cierto.
It ended, now the lie is on my body.
All this falseness has broken my insides.
I gave my all, I forgot my center,
I yielded for a chance, I am unhappy, it’s true.
“She Who Got Away”
Album: Ella… La Que Se Fue (She… Who Got Away), 1958
Style: Ranchera. Regretful song about the one who got away.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
¡Ay, amor, amor mío, uy-ya!
Oh, love, my love, uh-ya!
Tengo dinero en el mundo,
Dinero maldito que nada vale.
Aunque me miren sonriendo,
La pena que traigo
Ni Dios la sabe.
I have money in this world,
Damn money worth nothing.
Though they see me smiling,
The sorrow I carry
Not even God knows it.
Songlations 
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