"Como Te Echo de Menos" by Alejandro Sanz, English translation of lyrics
"How I Miss You"
Album: Si Tú Me Miras (If You Look At Me), 1993
Style: Pop romantica, slow tempo
Country: Spain
Listen:
This song is part of a genre that radios call romantica (romantic) which is characterized by themes of love, missing someone, romance, etc. The musical style tends to be a slower tempo, with one singer (often male) and no background singers, with guitar chords and few other instruments, and a chorus. Occasionally, romantica songs will have a male and female duo sing to each other, but not here. This song in particular is about missing a lover from the past. Listen at YouTube here.
[Expand embedded music video]
Translation:
Existe un niño que vive en mí
Luchando por tenerte
Y revive momentos, lejanos ya,
Y me hace pensar,
Confundiendo realidad,
Obligándome a escuchar.
There exists a boy that lives within me,
Struggling to have you
And he relives memories, from long ago now, [*alt. And he relives moments from long ago]
And he makes me think,
Confusing reality,
Forcing me to listen.
Tu voz diciendo de lejos:
Cómo te echo de menos.
No puedo más.
¿Por qué te alejas?
Your voice saying from afar:
How I have missed you.
I can’t anymore.
Why do you distance yourself?
Chorus:
----------------------------------------
Lo que me cuesta comprender
Que aunque eres parte del ayer,
No me vale que hundas tu cabeza en mí jersey, nooo.
How difficult it is for me to understand
That although you are part of the past
It isn’t worth it for me for you to sink your head on my jersey (shirt), nooo.
Lo que te cuesta comprender
Que aunque eres parte del ayer,
Me desespero,
Que también yo lo he sufrido,
Que en este tiempo sin vernos,
Como te he echado de menos. Yeee~
How difficult it is for you to understand
That although you are part of the past,
I get desperate,
Because I, too, have suffered it,
Because during this time without seeing each other,
How I have missed you. Yeeeah~
----------------------------------------
Perdiendo a cada instante un poco más.
Luchando por tenerte hasta el final, eeeh~
Sigo escuchando de lejos.
Como te echo de menos.
¿Que fuerza será?
La que aún nos une.
Losing at every moment a little more.
Fighting to keep you until the end, aaah~
I continue listening from afar.
How I miss you.
What force must it be,
The one that still unites us?
[Chorus: "Lo que te cuesta comprender..."]
Me besas y me hundo y sé
Que nadie en este mundo entendería
Porque queremos volver. Nooo.
(x2)
You kiss me and I sink and know
That no one in the world would understand
Why we want to return (to each other). Nooo.
(x2)
Translation Notes:
echar de menos (a alguien), idiom = to miss (someone)
---
Lo que me cuesta comprender que...
How difficult it is for me to understand that... [*lit.]
How much it costs me to comprehend that... [*more lit.]
costar, verb = to cost
In Spanish, one commonly says that something cuesta mucho (lit. costs a lot) with the meaning that it is very difficult. The cost is not necessarily or even usually monetary; the cost is whatever it takes to overcome the obstacles that make something difficult.
---
To echar de menos something or echar de menos (a) someone is to miss it or them. This is an idiomatic phrase that I associate with Castilian Spanish (i.e. Spanish from Spain), although two people on the internet say they have also heard it occasionally in Mexican media and in Chile. My family from central Mexico always uses the verb extrañar (to miss). If I were to re-write the title in our Spanish, we would say "Como te extraño."
According to a forum post by ALACRAN ("SCORPION") on Portuguese influence on the Spanish language, this idiom originates from the Portuguese phrase achar menos.
They write:
Translation (mine):
Album: Si Tú Me Miras (If You Look At Me), 1993
Style: Pop romantica, slow tempo
Country: Spain
Listen:
This song is part of a genre that radios call romantica (romantic) which is characterized by themes of love, missing someone, romance, etc. The musical style tends to be a slower tempo, with one singer (often male) and no background singers, with guitar chords and few other instruments, and a chorus. Occasionally, romantica songs will have a male and female duo sing to each other, but not here. This song in particular is about missing a lover from the past. Listen at YouTube here.
[Expand embedded music video]
Translation:
Existe un niño que vive en mí
Luchando por tenerte
Y revive momentos, lejanos ya,
Y me hace pensar,
Confundiendo realidad,
Obligándome a escuchar.
There exists a boy that lives within me,
Struggling to have you
And he relives memories, from long ago now, [*alt. And he relives moments from long ago]
And he makes me think,
Confusing reality,
Forcing me to listen.
Tu voz diciendo de lejos:
Cómo te echo de menos.
No puedo más.
¿Por qué te alejas?
Your voice saying from afar:
How I have missed you.
I can’t anymore.
Why do you distance yourself?
Chorus:
----------------------------------------
Lo que me cuesta comprender
Que aunque eres parte del ayer,
No me vale que hundas tu cabeza en mí jersey, nooo.
How difficult it is for me to understand
That although you are part of the past
It isn’t worth it for me for you to sink your head on my jersey (shirt), nooo.
Lo que te cuesta comprender
Que aunque eres parte del ayer,
Me desespero,
Que también yo lo he sufrido,
Que en este tiempo sin vernos,
Como te he echado de menos. Yeee~
How difficult it is for you to understand
That although you are part of the past,
I get desperate,
Because I, too, have suffered it,
Because during this time without seeing each other,
How I have missed you. Yeeeah~
----------------------------------------
Perdiendo a cada instante un poco más.
Luchando por tenerte hasta el final, eeeh~
Sigo escuchando de lejos.
Como te echo de menos.
¿Que fuerza será?
La que aún nos une.
Losing at every moment a little more.
Fighting to keep you until the end, aaah~
I continue listening from afar.
How I miss you.
What force must it be,
The one that still unites us?
[Chorus: "Lo que te cuesta comprender..."]
Me besas y me hundo y sé
Que nadie en este mundo entendería
Porque queremos volver. Nooo.
(x2)
You kiss me and I sink and know
That no one in the world would understand
Why we want to return (to each other). Nooo.
(x2)
Translation Notes:
echar de menos (a alguien), idiom = to miss (someone)
---
Lo que me cuesta comprender que...
How difficult it is for me to understand that... [*lit.]
How much it costs me to comprehend that... [*more lit.]
costar, verb = to cost
In Spanish, one commonly says that something cuesta mucho (lit. costs a lot) with the meaning that it is very difficult. The cost is not necessarily or even usually monetary; the cost is whatever it takes to overcome the obstacles that make something difficult.
---
To echar de menos something or echar de menos (a) someone is to miss it or them. This is an idiomatic phrase that I associate with Castilian Spanish (i.e. Spanish from Spain), although two people on the internet say they have also heard it occasionally in Mexican media and in Chile. My family from central Mexico always uses the verb extrañar (to miss). If I were to re-write the title in our Spanish, we would say "Como te extraño."
According to a forum post by ALACRAN ("SCORPION") on Portuguese influence on the Spanish language, this idiom originates from the Portuguese phrase achar menos.
They write:
De todas las supervivencias del influjo gallego-portugués en castellano, la más curiosa es la expresión «echar de menos».
Existía en portugués la forma «achar menos», con un primer elemento del mismo origen etimológico que nuestro «hallar». «Achar menos» en Portugal y «hallar menos» en Castilla coexistieron para indicar la falta de algo o alguien anteriormente dado. La forma castellana se documenta a partir del siglo XIII y subsiste hasta comienzos del XVII. Pero ya a partir del XVI aparece un «echar menos», con castellanización o erróneo entendimiento del portugués «achar». Don Pedro Pacheco Girón, por ejemplo, en 1648, dice a propósito de Quevedo, después de su muerte: «... y de papeles muchos originales de sus escritos, que siempre traía consigo, se echaron entonces menos gran suma».
En el siglo XVIII, este «echar menos» se convierte en «echar de menos», con un «de» que Corominas, atribuye a influjo de construcciones como «echar de ver», «echar una libra de más»,etcétera. Por lo expuesto, y atenidos al significado general del verbo «echar», el «echar de menos» castellano no tiene sentido.
Translation (mine):
Of all the surviving influences of Galician-Portuguese on Castilian, the most curious is the expression "echar de menos". It existed in Portuguese in the form "achar menos", with a first element of the same etymological origin as our "hallar" [to find]. "Achar menos" in Portugal and "hallar menos" [to find less] in Castilla co-existed to indicate the lack of something or someone previously available. The Castilian form is found documented from the 13th century and it survived until the start of the 17th century. But by the 16th century there appeared an "echar menos", with a Castilianized or erroneous understanding of the Portuguese "achar". Don Pedro Pacheco Girón, for example, in 1648, says by way of Quevedo, after his death: "...and from the many original papers from his writing, which he always carried with him, they echaron then menos [less] a great sum."
In the 18th century, this "echar menos" was converted to "echar de menos", with a "de" that Corominas attributes to the influence of constructions such as "echar de ver", "echar una libra de más", et cetera. By what is shown, and going by the general meaning of the verb "echar", the Castilian "echar de menos" is nonsense.