Album: Entren Los Que Quieran (Enter Whoever Wants To), 2010
Style: Metered alt. pop/rock; pro-happiness, pro-love, anti-dull life
Country: Puerto Rico
Listen:
The music video is cute, with an office guy wooing an office girl by making a landscape wall using post-it notes. See the video at YouTube here. The album won "Album of the Year" in the 2011 Latin Grammy Awards.
[Expand embedded video]
Translation:
No me regalen más libros [*regalar, verb = to gift; to give]
Porque no los leo.
Lo que he aprendido,
Es porque lo veo.
Do not give me more books
Because I do not read them.
What I have learned,
Is because I saw it.
Mientras más pasan los años,
Me contradigo cuando pienso.
El tiempo no me mueve;
Yo me muevo con el tiempo.
The more the years pass by,
The more I contradict myself when I think.
Time does not move me;
I move with time.
Soy las ganas de vivir,
Las ganas de cruzar,
Las ganas de conocer
Lo que hay después del mar.
I am the yearning to live,
The yearning to cross,
The yearning to know
What lies beyond the sea. [*lit. What there is after the sea]
Yo espero que mi boca
Nunca se calle,
También espero que las turbinas de este avión
Nunca me fallen.
I hope that my mouth
Never shuts up,
I also hope that the turbines of this plane
Never fail me.
No tengo todo calculado,
Ni mi vida resuelta, [*resolver, verb = to solve; to settle, to decide]
Sólo tengo una sonrisa
Y espero una de vuelta.
I do not have everything figured out, [*lit. I do not have everything calculated]
Nor my life settled,
I just have a smile
And I hope for one in return. [*alt. And I expect one in return; *esperar = to hope; to wait; to expect]
Yo confío en el destino
Y en la marejada.
Yo no creo en la Iglesia
Pero creo en tu mirada.
I trust in destiny
And in the tidal waves.
I do not believe in the Church
But I believe in your gaze.
Tú eres el sol en mi cara
Cuando me levanta.
Yo soy la vida que ya tengo;
Tú eres la vida que me falta.
You are the sun in my face
When it wakes me up.
I am the life that I already have;
You are the life that I lack.
Así que agarra tu maleta,
El bulto, los motetes,
El equipaje, tu valija,
La mochila con todos tus juguetes, y...
So grab your suitcase,
The luggage, the parcels,
The baggage, your valise,
The backpack with all your toys, and...
Dame la mano y vamos a
Darle la vuelta al mundo. (x3)
(x2)
Give me your hand and let’s
Go around the world. (x3) [*lit. Give the roundabout to the world]
(x2)
La renta, el sueldo,
El trabajo en la oficina,
Lo cambié por las estrellas
Y por huertos de harina.
The rent, the salary,
The job in the office,
I traded it for the stars
And for fields of wheat. [*lit. And for orchards of flour.]
Me escapé de la rutina
Para pilotear mi viaje
Porque el cubo en el que vivía
Se convirtió en paisaje.
I escaped routine
To pilot my voyage
Because the cubicle where I lived
Has turned into a landscape.
Yo era un objeto
Esperando a ser ceniza.
Un día decidí
Hacerle caso a la brisa.
I was an object
Waiting to become ash. [*i.e. waiting to die, reference to phrase "ashes to ashes, dust to dust"]
One day I decided
To pay attention to the breeze.
A irme resbalando
Detrás de tu camisa.
No me convenció nadie;
Me convenció tu sonrisa.
To go sliding [*alt. To go sledding]
Behind your shirt.
No one convinced me;
Your smile convinced me.
Y me fui tras de ti
Persiguiendo mi instinto.
Si quieres cambio verdadero,
Pues, camina distinto.
And I went after you,
Following my instinct. [*lit. Pursuing my instinct]
If you want real change,
Well, change the way you walk. [*lit. Well, walk differently.]
Voy a escaparme hasta
La constelación más cercana.
La suerte es mi oxígeno;
Tus ojos son mi ventana.
I am going to escape all the way to
The closest constellation.
Luck is my oxygen;
Your eyes are my window.
Quiero correr por siete lagos
En un mismo día.
Sentir encima de mis muslos
El clima de tus nalgas frías.
I want to run over seven lakes
In the same day.
To feel over my thighs,
The climate of your cold behind.
Llegar al tope de la sierra,
Abrazarme con las nubes,
Sumergirme en el agua y ver
Cómo las burbujas suben, y...
To reach the top of the sierra,
To envelop myself in clouds,
Submerge myself in water and see
How the bubbles rise, and...
Dame la mano y vamos a
Darle la vuelta al mundo. (x3)
(x2)
Give me your hand and let's
Go around the world. (x3)
(x2)
Translation Notes:
Yo confío en el destino / y en la marejada.
I trust in destiny / and in the tidal waves.
Possible double meaning: marejada refers to both swelling seas (natural) and waves of protest (political).
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Y por huertos de harina.
And for fields of wheat.
And for orchards of flour. [*lit.]
harina (noun, f.) = flour (as in, what bread is made out of).
It doesn’t actually mean "wheat," though I think that he is referring to wheat fields and just using the word harina to bring up a direct association with food and sustenance.
According to Collins, harina is also slang for money in the Carribbean (like "dough" in English), but I doubt that is relevant here. That meaning would be contradictory to the song.
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A irme resbalando / detrás de tu camisa.
To go sliding / behind your shirt.
The verb phrase ir resbalando (to go sliding) is often used in conversations about sliding down a slide at a playground or waterpark, or sliding down snow (sledding).
Occasionally, it is also used to describe accidental slips and falls, but that is not relevant here.
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Quiero correr por siete lagos
I want to run over seven lakes
Update 9/2014: Nope. He is making a reference to the Seven Lakes region of Argentina. Thank you to a commentor for correcting me.
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El clima de tus nalgas frías.
The climate of your cold behind.
nalgas (noun, f.) = butt, behind, bottom, ass
When I was translating this line, I immediately went over to Thesaurus.com and looked up "butt" to find a synonym that didn’t sound juvenile or crass. I guess "behind" is good enough, though not perfect.