Album: Multi_Viral, 2014
Style: Folk, mythological, even tempo and varying tempo, very clock-like sometimes
Country: Puerto Rico
Listen:
This is a story song about the ability of ideas to survive from Calle 13’s new album, Multi_Viral. Listen to the song at YouTube here. The album was released March 1 and already I have two requests for it. Yes, I will be translating it. Not all at once. It is an interesting album. They even got author Eduardo Galeano to do their album introduction!
Here are articles from The New York Times and National Public Radio about the new album.
By the way, I am experimenting with Amazon referral links for the first time ever. If you are looking for reading material in Spanish, Eduardo Galeano’s Memoria de Fuego (Memory of Fire) trilogy is an amazing mix of short stories (some only a paragraph long) based on the culture and history of Latin America. I recommend it even if you don’t use my links. Find the books in the library and read them in any order. They're great! I started with the third book while translating "Destino" by Juanes, which referenced it.
(Don't worry. The referral links will come up rarely, and only if I am recommending something I actually like.)
[Expand embedded video]
Translation:
En el meridiano cero en la zona central,
Cerca del límite y lejos del final,
Entre dos valles con el cielo despejado,
Sobre un campo con el horizonte estrellado...
In the prime meridian in the central zone, [*cero (number) = zero]
Close to the limit and far from the end,
Between two valleys, with clear skies,
Over a field with a star-speckled horizon... [*estrellado (adj.) = starry]
Hay una fábrica pequeña pero inmensa
De un viejo sabio que sobrevive porque piensa.
There is factory, little but immense,
Belonging to a wise old man who survives because he thinks. [*René Descartes' cogito ergo sum reference]
Conocedor de múltiples maniobras,
El viejo e' [es] la mezcla de lo mejor de las sobras.
El mundo explotó y quedó desierto y el viejo
Heredó lo mejor de todo lo que había muerto.
Knower of multiple tricks,
The old man is the mix of the best of the leftovers.
The world exploded and was left a desert and the old man
Inherited the best from everything that had died.
Tiene visión telescópica, piel de tortuga,
Lengua de camaleón y olfato de oruga.
He has telescopic vision, the skin of a turtle,
A chameleon's tongue and the nose of a caterpillar.
El viejo es el cirujano del tiempo, tiempo, tiempo.
A sangre fría opera todos los momentos.
Todos los minutos que se pierden por ahí,
Los puede recuperar con un bisturí.
The old man is the surgeon of time, time, time.
With a cool calmness, he operates on all the moments. [*sangre fría = sangfroid]
All the minutes that are lost over there,
He can recover them with a scalpel.
Estira los segundos para que se hagan más largos.
He stretches the seconds so they become longer.
También hace trasplantes de momentos amargos
Y si continúa la amargura y nada lo consuela,
Se aplica un poco de anestesia
Pa' que no le duela. (x3)
He also does transplants of bitter moments
And if the bitterness remains and nothing consoles him,
He applies a bit of anesthesia
So it doesn't hurt him. (x3)
Chorus:
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Se hacen eternas cuando las quieren,
Y siempre viven y nunca mueren.
Cuando se duermen son indefensas
Y se despiertan cuando las piensas.
They become eternal when they are loved,
And they always live and they never die.
When they sleep, they are defenseless
And they wake up when you think of them.
Y las atacan y las defienden,
Las más valiosas nunca se venden.
Alcanzan todo lo que deseas;
Así de grande son las ideas.
And they are attacked and they are defended,
The most valuable (ones) are never sold.
They reach everything you desire;
This is how grand ideas are!
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(x2)
Si quiere darle vida a un sitio nuevo,
Cada cierto tiempo pone huevos.
If he wants to give life to a new place,
Every now and then he lays eggs.
No come mucho porque es de sangre fría,
Y se alimenta de moscas que viven un solo día,
Y si no hay comida, no lo culpo
Si se alimenta de su propio cuerpo como los pulpos.
He doesn't eat much because he is cold-blooded,
And he feeds on flies who live a single day,
And if there is no food, I don't fault him
If he eats from his own body like the octopus.
No moriría aunque su cuerpo entero se comiera.
Es como la salamandra; rápido se regenera.
He wouldn't die even if he ate his whole body.
He is like the salamander; he regenerates quickly.
Pueden pasar los años.
Years may pass.
Pero a este ermitaño el tiempo no le hace daño.
Es inmortal como los santos.
Sus vértebras son de árbol, por eso duran tanto.
But time does not damage this hermit.
He is immortal like the saints.
His vertebra come from trees, that's why they last so long.
El viejo sabio nunca se olvida de nada
Porque tiene su memoria congelada.
Sus recuerdos están enteros;
Los preserva con hielo seco, ochenta grados bajo cero.
The wide old man never forgets about anything
Because his memory is frozen.
His recollections are whole;
He preserves them with dry ice, eighty degrees below zero.
[Chorus x2]
La repetición (la repetición, repetición) de una acción
Es la técnica más efectiva para la prolongación,
Por eso se repite aunque se este aburriendo.
The repetition (the repetition, repetition) of an action
Is the most efficacious technique for prolongation,
That's why one repeats it even if one begins to get bored.
Ya lleva nueve mil quinientos años viviendo
Y es que ya no pasa por problemas mayores.
De tanto repetirse aprendió de sus errores.
He already has nine thousand five hundred (950) years living
And he just doesn't come across big problems anymore.
From so much repetition, he has learned from his errors.
Pa'l [para el] viejo es un abismo.
Vivir no es tan bonito
Cuando se vive todos los días lo mismo.
For the old man, it is an abyss.
Living isn't so nice [*bonito (adj.) = pretty; nice, pleasant]
When one lives every day the same.
Le gustaría ser distinto
Pero repetirse y controlar el tiempo
Ya lo hace por instinto.
He would like to be different,
But repeating himself and controlling time,
He now does by instinct.
Se trató de suicidar de diferentes maneras,
Pero el viejo sin oxígeno respira como quiera.
He tried to commit suicide in different ways,
But the old man breathes without oxygen regardless.
Porque las grandes ideas descubiertas
Siempre renuevan sus células muertas.
Because great ideas, (once) discovered,
Always renew their dead cells.
[Chorus x3]
Translation Notes:
Así de grande son las ideas.
This is how grand ideas are.
Ideas, this is how grand they are. [*alt. syntax]
I chose "grand" over "big" because Calle 13 is not celebrating "big ideas," but rather "ideas." They are saying that ideas are great.
---
Conocedor de múltiples maniobras, / el viejo e' [es] la mezcla de lo mejor de las sobras.
Knower of multiple tricks, / the old man is the mix of the best of the leftovers.
Because of the ending "s" in las, I can't hear if the last word is sobras (leftovers) or obras (works). Either could make sense, and I find both versions online. The next lines are about the world exploding and leaving the old man to inherit the spoils, so I tend to lean toward sobras.
---
...Lengua de camaleón y olfato de oruga.
...A chameleon's tongue and the nose of a caterpillar.
The word olfato usually means "sense of smell," but it is also a fancy word for "nose." After spending a few minutes researching the sense of smell of caterpillars, I decided that didn't make sense. Besides, this stanza is describing the old man's physical appearance.
---
El viejo es el cirujano del tiempo, tiempo, tiempo. / A sangre fría opera todos los momentos.
The old man is the surgeon of time, time, time. / With a cool calmness, he operates on all the moments.
No come mucho porque es de sangre fría.
He doesn't eat much because he is cold-blooded.
sangre fría (Spanish) = sang-froid (French), lit. cold blood
The French term was incorporated into English (sangfoid) and now refers to the ability to stay composed and calm under difficult circumstances. In Spanish, both this definition and the literal definition are known. Calle 13 uses both meanings of sangre fría in this song.
---
Ya lleva nueve mil quinientos años viviendo.
He already has nine thousand five hundred (950) years living.
llevar (verb) = to carry; to have with oneself
---
Pero el viejo sin oxígeno respira como quiera.
But the old man breathes without oxygen regardless.
But the old man without oxygen breathes whether he wants to or not. [*lit.]
The phrase como quiera can be used to mean "however he/she/you want" or "whether one wants to or not" depending on the context.
---
...Si se alimenta de su propio cuerpo como los pulpos.
...If he eats from his own body like the octopus.
My reaction to this was, "what?!"
And so began the Google search.
"In captivity it has also been observed that if stressed the octopus will develop a strange habit of eating it's own arms, although further research is indicating that this is perhaps due to a virus that causes a neurological disorder as opposed to actual stress."-Science360 post provides some clues, but sadly no citations.
"Autophagy is a neurological disorder in which the virus attacks the octopus's central nervous system. This disruption causes the octopus to eat its own arms. It was once believed the octopus did this due to stress."-BIO 203 course page from UW La Crosse talks about the diseases that affect an octopus. No specific citation for this either, but we're getting somewhere.
Now we have a term to search for in the scientific literature.
Here is the abstract of Budelmann (1998) in the South African Journal of Marine Science, 20, 101-108:
Automutilation, specifically of the arms, is well known in some octopod species. It occurs in two forms, autotomy and autophagy. Autotomy of an arm is achieved by breaking off at a predetermined site, or by biting off by the animal itself. Biologically, autotomy is a meaningful behaviour. It is well known, e.g. in male Argonauta during reproduction; it has also been described in several octopod species as a survival strategy. Autophagy, in contrast, is more puzzling; it is distinct from cannibalism because the animals eat (parts of) their own arms. This paper is based on 161 cases of autophagy in Octopus vulgaris. Although the data are still limited, they indicate that autophagy is not caused by hunger or stress, but is an infectious, deadly disease. Incubation time is between one and two weeks; death occurs 1–2 days after autophagy starts. Some data suggest that autophagy is caused either by a (so far unknown) substance released by the animal itself or, more likely, by viruses or bacteria; these, in turn, seem to affect the nervous system. Stress (often thought to be the reason for autophagy) may contribute to it but it is not its primary cause.(Bold mine.)
That's the only paper I found that said anything specific about it. It was cited by 6 other papers, but none had updated information about this phenomenon. Someone should take this up as a thesis project and update me! I want to know more.