Spanish song lyrics translated to English: side-by-side lyrics, song meanings, and translation notes for people learning Spanish.
“Nailed to a Bar (In Love)”
Album: Sueños Líquidos (Liquid Dreams), 1997
Style: Latin Rock song about someone pining for the love of a specific woman, drowning his sorrow in drinks.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube
¡Oye!
Aquí me tiene
Bien clavado,
Soltando las penas en un bar,
Brindando por su amor.
Hey!
Here she has me
Really nailed down (madly in love),
Letting my regrets out at a bar,
Toasting for her love.
“On the Pier of San Blas”
Album: Sueños Líquidos (Liquid Dreams), 1997
Genre: Latin rock, probably a classic song by now. It is the legend of the woman at the pier of a San Blas island, who stood on the pier and waited for her lover to return, always, and who fell in love with the sea while waiting.
Country: Mexico
Ella despidió a su amor.
Él partió en un barco en el muelle de San Blas.
Él juró que volvería
Y, empapada en llanto, ella juró que esperaría.
She bid farewell to her lover.
He left on a boat from the pier of San Blas.
He swore he would return
And, puffed up with tears, she swore that she would wait.
“Clandestine Love”
Album: Drama y Luz (Drama and Light), 2011
Genre: Latin rock song with dual meaning, about hidden love, but also about undocumented immigrant youth (Dreamers).
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube, Amazon
Eres inevitable, amor,
Casi como respirar,
Casi como respirar.
You are inevitable, love,
Almost like breathing,
Almost like breathing.
“I Let Go of Your Rein”
Genre: Corrido, ranchera, sometimes a mariachi. This popular Mexican song is an epic “you’ll miss me, but go” breakup song.
Country: Mexico
Listen: YouTube (José Alfredo Jiménez, Maná, Lupillo Rivera, Vicente Fernandez, and many more)
Se me acabó la fuerza
De mi mano izquierda.
Voy a dejarte el mundo
Para ti solita.
I lost the strength
On my left hand.
I am going to leave you the world
For your very own.
“I Will Not Be Your Slave”
Album: Revolución de Amor (Revolution of Love), 2002
Genre: Rock
Country: Mexico
Listen @ YouTube, Amazon Music
No me crucifiques
Con los clavos del amor, mi morena.
No soy de tu propiedad, mi reina,
Y no voy a ser tu esclavo.
Do not crucify me
With the nails of love, my brunette.
I am not your property, my queen,
And I will not be your slave.
“Lining the Sun”
Album: Maná MTV Unplugged, 1999
Genre: 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.
“I Forgot Again”
Composer: Juan Gabriel (1974)
Albums: Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán (1990); Maná MTV Unplugged (1999)
Genre: Mariachi, ranchera; bolero; rock; lost love song; always guitar. A classic Mexican ranchera song full of emotion, soulfully mourning still being in love with someone who doesn’t love them back. Good pick for a karaoke song.
Country: Mexico
YouTube has renditions by: Maná (MTV live album, rock), Juan Gabriel (recorded mariachi style), Alejandro Fernández (live traditional mariachi), Lucero (woman mariachi live), Pedro Vargas (recorded ranchera), Chavela Vargas (slow and hoarse ranchera, woman), Julio Jaramillo (bolero version), and more.
Wikipedia originally said that Juan Gabriel wrote and released it in 1990, but that time can’t be right because Julio Jaramillo sung it also and Julio died in 1978. Anyway, Juan Gabriel re-released it in 1999 around the same time that Maná released their version. It won Maná a Latin Grammy in 2000.
Update: English Wikipedia now says 1975, but Spanish Wikipedia says Juan Gabriel released this song in 1974 in his collaboration with the famous and transgenerational Mariachi Vargas.
Probablemente ya
De mí te has olvidado
Y sin embargo yo
Te seguiré esperando.
Probably, by now
You’ve forgotten about me
And nevertheless, I
Will continue to wait for you.
“Treacherous Butterfly” Translated Lyrics
Album: Revolución de Amor (Revolution of Love), 2002
Genre: 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
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.
“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.
“Disappearances” Song Translation
Album: Buscando America (Looking for America), 1984
Style: Political commentary, sad song
Countries: Panama, Mexico
Listen at YouTube: Rubén Blades, or Maná’s cover from their MTV Unplugged album
Que alguien me diga si han visto a mi esposo,
Preguntaba la Doña.
Se llama Ernesto X. Tiene cuarenta años.
Trabaja de celador, en un negocio de carros.
Llevaba camisa oscura y pantalón claro.
Someone tell me if they have seen my husband,
Asked the madam.
His name is Ernesto X. He is forty years old.
He works as a guard, in a car dealership business.
He had a dark shirt and light pants.
Salió anteanoche y no ha regresado
Y no sé ya qué pensar,
Pues esto antes no me había pasado.
Oooo…
He went out the night before last night and he has not returned
And I don’t know what to think anymore,
Because this had never happened to me before.
Oooo…
“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.
Songlations 
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