music video Archives - Learn Spanish with Andrew

Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Juanes’ ‘Yerbatero’ Dissected

Andrew — Sun, 27 Feb 2011 00:04:20 +0000

This is the next installment in the whole “let’s learn Spanish from music videos” thing I’m doing that everyone seems to like (which I totally agree with, using popular media like this that you enjoy is a fantastic way to learn the language, plus it uses contemporary Spanish). Up until now it’s been all Shakira, all the time, so I thought it was time to switch it up a bit and several people have suggested Juanes–I listened to a few of his songs and this one was easily the one I liked the most, it’s quite a bit more upbeat than most of the others it seems (everything else he does seems to be kind of depressing and sad, honestly) plus it’s one of his most popular songs ever and it’s really recent (2010) so everyone ought to be familiar with it, so I really felt it was easily the best choice.

What’s a ‘Juanes’?

It’s a contraction of his first and middle names: “Juan” + “Esteban” = “Juanes”, kind of like “Brangelina” or “Bennifer” 😀

Juanes is one of the biggest names in the Spanish-language music world, probably second only to Shakira. He’s now a solo artist, though he started out in a band called Ekhymosis that he started in 1988 and later disbanded 10 years later in 1998. He’s sold more than 12 million albums and won 17 Latin Grammys, more than any other artist.

An interesting fact about Juanes is his refusal to (almost) never sing in English or really any language other than Spanish, his explanation being that “Singing in Spanish is very important because it’s the language in which I think and feel. I respect people that sing in English, but for now I’ll keep my Spanish.”

Yerbatero

Yerbatero is a guitar-driven rock song that significantly deviates from Juanes’ previous romantic latin-pop songs which had previously dominated his discography, and it seems to have been quite a success with it being his most popular music video on YouTube, beating even La Camisa Negra and debuting on the Latin Pop Charts at number four.

The word itself is an Andean slang term that means “herbalist” or, more accurately in this context, “healer” and comes from the word “yerba mate” which is a type of tea popular in Latin America and especially Argentina, and a “yerbatero” was originally a seller of yerba mate tea. This will make a great deal of sense once you start reading the lyrics below and see how Juanes is referring to himself as a sort of healer of broken hearts.

Ground Rules

1. I will post the video below this. The way I want you to do this is to play it once all the way through, then let’s look at it and analyze it one verse at a time. Below the video will be the Spanish lyrics so that you can listen to the music video while following along with the lyrics–this is the intermediate step after you learn what the lyrics mean but before you can just listen to the song and understand everything without the lyrics to read. Having the actual Spanish being spoken in front of you in written form so you can follow along with the audio allows you to attune your listening comprehension, it’s that intermediate step that gets you to the point where you can understand everything being said without the lyrics to read, they’re sort of like training wheels (thanks to Eiteacher for this suggestion).

2. Under the lyrics will be my translation and analysis of what was said, here is where you’ll actually learn the Spanish that was spoken during the song. I will post the Spanish lyrics and then the English translation of them. Use the English lyrics and SpanishDict (I highly recommend you have this open in another tab while you’re doing this) to determine the definition of any words you don’t know (I will cover a lot of the words used, but not all of them)–if the regular definition of a particular word isn’t being used or the word is being used in such a way that simply knowing its definition won’t help you, I will explain it.

3. Next I will pick out various aspects of the Spanish that she’s using that I think require an explanation–I will not cover simple things like the definition of words like “el” (which means “the”), “ser” (which means “to be”), etc. unless there is something about the way they’re being used that I think warrants explanation. If you don’t understand what a word means, like I said, just check the English translation and/or SpanishDict. I will link to a lot of external sites with explanations for the grammar used, or the conjugation of a verb used, or the definition of a word–I’m doing this because I don’t have the space here to explain every single detail of what’s going on, there’s an enormous amount of Spanish being used in a single song like this which is precisely why I advocate this method (this is essentially The Telenovela Method, FYI), because you can learn so much from a single song or movie or book, etc. If you don’t understand a grammatical term that I use and it’s a link, click it!

4. Now, go back and play the verse we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one.

5. If you are confused about anything and feel there’s something I didn’t cover or explain but should have, please let me know in the comments. As a matter of fact, please leave a comment and let me know what you think regardless, I need feedback and love getting it, each individual comment allows me to make an improvement or fix a problem thereby making this blog just a little bit better each and every time I get feedback of some sort. Oh, and you can also contact me via my contact form (this will go to my e-mail inbox).

The Video

The Lyrics

Le traigo el remedio
Para ese mal de amor que le estremece
No se merece sufrir
si su pareja le dejó

Tengo toda clase de brebajes, plantas medicinales
Las he traído desde muy lejanos bosques hasta aquí

Soy yerbatero, vengo a curar su mal de amores
Soy el que quita los dolores y habla con los animales
Dígame de que sufre usted
Que yo le tengo un brebaje
Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, busquese uno usted también

Sufre de depresión, mal de amor
Lleva varias noches sin dormir
Y sus días no van bien en el trabajo

Anda moribundo, preocupado, cabizbajo, desenamorado Le tengo la solución si le duele el corazón
No soy doctor, soy yerbatero…
Soy yerbatero, vengo a curar su mal de amores
Soy el que quita los dolores y habla con los animales
Dígame de que sufre usted
Que yo le tengo un brebaje
Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, búsquese uno usted también

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, búsquese uno usted también

Soy yerbatero…Soy yerbatero…Soy yerbatero…

Translation and Analysis

First verse:

Le traigo el remedio
Para ese mal de amor que le estremece
No se merece sufrir
si su pareja le dejó

Translation:

I’ll bring you the remedy
For that love sickness that makes you shudder
You don’t deserve to suffer
If your partner left you

Where it says “le estremece”, the verb in question there is “estremecer” which does in fact mean “to shudder or tremble”, but the line immediately after that is where we see something kind of interesting in the phrase “No se merece sufrir”: “merecer” means “to deserve or be worthy of” and can be used in several different ways, not just as above where it means that a person deserves something, but also in the sense of “___ is worth doing”, e.g. “Esa película merece una mirada” = “That movie is worth a look”.

Also, the word “pareja” in the last line usually means “pair” but can also be used to refer to one member of a pair as it is in this case, and one of the literal translations of the word is actually “partner”.

Tengo toda clase de brebajes, plantas medicinales
Las he traído desde muy lejanos bosques hasta aquí

Translation:

I have every kind of potion, medicinal plants
I have brought them here from distant forests

Oh what a funny word “brebaje” is, because although “potion” is probably the best contextual translation of it here, the actual meaning of the word is something more like “concoction” or “foul drink” and it’s also a slang term for something sailors call “grog“, haha.

Notice the use of “desde” and “hasta” here, even though the contextual translation (correctly) doesn’t show it as it’s literally written, which would be something like “I have brought them from forrests very far away to here”, you’ll almost always see these two words paired up in Spanish to express “from ___ to ____” as “desde ____ hasta _____”. The expression can not only be used with physical locations but also with time, as in “I’ll be here from this morning until this afternoon” = “Estoy aquí desde esta mañana hasta esta tarde.” “Desde” literally translates as “from” and “hasta” means “until”.

Next verse:

Soy yerbatero, vengo a curar su mal de amores
Soy el que quita los dolores y habla con los animales
Dígame de que sufre usted
Que yo le tengo un brebaje
Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien

Which means:

I’m a healer, I’m coming to cure your love sicknesses
I’m the one who takes away the pain and speaks with the animals
Tell me what you suffer from
‘cause I have a potion for you
‘cause I return you to your complexion and it makes you well

Let’s look at the first line where it says “vengo a curar su mal de amores”, now “vengo” is the present first person form of “venir” which means “to come” and “curar” means “to cure or heal”, but what’s interesting is the phrase “su mal de amores”, because “mal” literally translates as “bad” but can be used in so many other ways that all make sense when you understand that the primary definition of the word is “bad”: it can mean evil, harm, damage, or even “bad times” in the context of “in bad times and good” as we saw Shakira use it in her song Suerte where she says “Contigo celebro y sufro todo mis alegrías y mis males” which means “With you I celebrate and suffer everything, the good times and the bad”, or it can mean “illness” as it does in this case. This is just one of those words that has a billion different meanings depending on the context and that gets used left, right, and center that you should be aware of.

In the sentence “Dígame de que sufre usted” the word order is a little screwy, so let’s have a look at that. What it literally translates to is “Tell me of that suffer you”, or a little more logically, “Tell me of that which you suffer”, because “de” means “of”, “que” means “that”, and “sufre” is the present 3rd person form of “sufrir“, which means “to suffer”. Also, “Dígame” is a contraction of “díga” (imperative form of “decir” which means “to tell”) and “me”, which you always do when making a command like that which is reflexive (meaning that the verb acts on a reflexive pronoun like me, te, se, etc.).

In the next sentence where it says “Que yo le tengo un brebaje” you may be confused by the way he’s using “que“, and…it’s honestly very hard to explain, because that word doesn’t really literally translate as “because”, but it’s the best contextual translation of it in these particular circumstances. Essentially, it means “that” or “so that” here because it’s sort of a continuation of the previous sentence, it relies on the previous sentence to work. Ok, the previous sentence was: “Tell me what you suffer from”, and then this next one says “que yo lo tengo un brebaje” which sort of translates to “Tell me what you suffer from so that/such that I have a potion for you” which sort of makes sense, but if we take what we can tell his meaning is from that sentence and express it as we normally would in English, it would come out as “Tell me what you suffer from ’cause I have a potion for you”, get it?

“Que” is really confusing for beginners because, far more so than “mal”, it has many, many different possible meanings all of which are entirely dependent on the context, and to make things even more confusing there’s an entirely different word that people tend to get confused with it because it’s almost spelled the same way: “qué” (notice the accent! that makes it a whole ‘nother word altogether, “que” does NOT equal “qué”), which is the Spanish word for “what”, which of course means you’ll see it all the time as well, frequently in conjunction with “que” in the same sentence or even side-by-side.

Remember:

“que” = “that”/”so that”/”than”/”such that”/

“qué” = “what”

Deep breath (we’re not done with this verse yet!)

The last line where it says “Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien” you see an interesting verb, “devolver” which means “to return” and “le” working as a pronoun meaning “you”, so the verb here, “devolver” is reflecting back on “le”, it’s action is being done to it, so the returning is being done to “le” which is “you” in this case, “le devuelve” means “return you”.

Ok, so we have “que” being used in the same way as the previous line, so “que le devuelve” means “because I return you…”, now “el tono” means “the tone” where tone means “complexion” (check the definition, it’s 2nd) in this case, and taken in the current context of illness and him being the yerbatero, the healer, he’s of course saying that he’ll return you to your previous healthy complexion, he’ll make you better, basically, you see?

That last bit, “lo pone bien” is just saying essentially the same thing again, “pone” is the present 3rd person form of “poner” which means “to put”, and what’s doing the putting? “lo” is, which means “it” and of course refers to the potion, and since “bien” means “good” or “well”, it’s literally saying something like “it puts you well”, which really means “it makes you well”.

Finally, that one’s done. Next one:

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, busquese uno usted también

Translation:

If your woman leaves you, sir
Rub some carnation oinment on your soul
And for the lady whose husband has been unfaithful
Don’t worry, get yourself some too

Let’s go to the second sentence where it says “úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel”, the verb in question at the beginning there is “untar” which means “to smear” and it’s reflexive here, with “se” filling in for “you”. “Alma” is the word for “soul”, “pomada” is “ointment” so “pomadita” is “little bit of ointment” really, and “clavel” means “carnation”, so the literal translation of “úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel” is “rub yourself on the soul a little ointment of carnation” which contextually means “rub some carnation oil on your soul”, got it?

Now, in the last line we see “No se preocupe, busquese uno usted también”, “preocupar” means “to worry” and in this case it’s reflexive, which it almost always is, as the way that they say that someone is/was/will worry in Spanish is to say that they “worry themselves” as opposed to just “worry” as we would in English, it essentially means the same thing.

Now, “buscar” (which is what that word you see there, “búsquese”, is based on) is a verb that normally means “to look for or to search”, but a secondary definition for it is “to pick up” as in, “Voy a buscar el correo” = “I’m going to pick up the mail”, which is how it’s used here where it’s translated as “get yourself”. It’s in the command form and reflexive, with the command form of “buscar” being “busque” and “se” being a pronoun meaning “you” here, so “busquese” means “get yourself” as in “get yourself some of this awesome ointment I’ve got”.

Next verse:

Sufre de depresión, mal de amor
Lleva varias noches sin dormir
Y sus días no van bien en el trabajo

Translation:

Do you suffer from depression, love sickness?
Have you spent many nights without sleeping?
And your days don’t go well at work?

We’ve already discussed “suffrir” and the way that you see “mal” used here with “mal de amor” to mean “love sickness”, so I don’t need to cover that. “lleva” is the 3rd person present form of “llevar” which literally means “to take, carry, wear, handle, have, keep, deal with, or cope with” but has so many little variations on those meanings depending on the context that to decipher which one it is you have to look at the context, and in this case he’s saying “llevas varias noches sin dormir”, so I would literally translate it as “take” with the meaning as in “take a nap”, “take a class”, etc. so you get “do you take many nights without sleep?”, got it?

The last line where it says “en el trabajo” has “trabajo” functioning as a noun that means “work”, in this case “el trabajo” is referring to your place of work, your job, so you could also translate this last line as “at your job”.

Last bit:

Anda moribundo, preocupado, cabizbajo, desenamorado
Le tengo la solución si le duele el corazón

No soy doctor, soy yerbatero…

Translation:

Continue dying, worried, downcast, unloved?
I have for you the solution if your heart hurts

I’m not a doctor, I’m a healer…

Right, now “moribundo” is simply an adjective that means “dying”, but “anda” is the verb “andar” which usually means “to walk”, right? Well…let’s get confused again, “andar” is also very frequently used to mean “to go” in the sense of indicating action as in “to go do something” usually in the form of “to go [verb]” so it’ll be “andar + verb”. It sort of makes sense if you think of “andar” as meaning generally “to go” and frequently used to indicate that the person is walking which is, of course, one way you can go about going, right? So it generally means “to go” and is frequently used in the specific context of walking but not always.

Now, “cabizbajo” is just an adjective that means “downcast, crestfallen, or melancholy”, and “desenamorado” is really obvious if you take a second to look at it and you already know that “enamorar” means “to love” and you also know that the way you make a verb’s past participle (the “-ed” version of it, as in “loved” is the past participle of “love”) is to simply add “-ado” to the end of it where the “-ar” at the end was. So you know that “enamorado” means “loved”, and now I’ll tell you that one way they make a word “un”ed in Spanish (as in, covered –> uncovered, known –> unknown, loved –> unloved) is to add the preposition “des” to the beginning of it, that’s kind of like the Spanish “un”, so:

“des” + “enamorar” + “ado” = “des” + “enamorado” = “desenamorado” = “unloved”

In the next to last line we’ve got “Le tengo la solución si le duele el corazón”. The first part is pretty simple and you’ve probably got no problem understanding it: “le tengo la solución” – “le” is just a pronoun meaning “you” that’s reflected back on by “tengo” which is the present first person form of “tener” which means “to have” and when you do that it translates as “I have for you the solution…”, and “si” just means “if”.

Then, we see “le” this time filling in for “your heart” and being reflected back on by “duele” which is the third person present form of “doler” which means “to hurt or cause pain” and in this case the “corazón” at the end is simply added for clarification because “le duele” says “it’s hurting” so of course you wonder “what’s hurting?” and “el corazón” is added at the end to clarify, so a more accurate translation that’ll help you understand how that sentence is working would be like this:

“Le tengo la solución si le duele el corazón” = “I have for you the solution if it hurts, your heart that is”

And it’ll make even more sense to us English speakers if we make one more minor little tweak and stick some strategic commas in there:

“Le tengo la solución si le duele, el corazón” = “I have the solution for you if it, your heart, hurts.”

If you’re having trouble understanding, go back and look at those sentences and really pay attention to what I did with the commas, I hope that explains it for you.

Next verse:

Soy yerbatero, vengo a curar su mal de amores
Soy el que quita los dolores y habla con los animales
Dígame de que sufre usted
Que yo le tengo un brebaje
Que le devuelve el tono y lo pone bien

That’s a repeat, we’ve covered it.

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, búsquese uno usted también

Another repeat. Next:

Si a usted, señor, lo deja su mujer
úntese en el alma pomadita de clavel
Y para la señora que el marido ha sido infiel
No se preocupe, búsquese uno usted también

Another repeat. Next:

Soy yerbatero…Soy yerbatero…Soy yerbatero…

Translation (do I really need to?):

I’m the healer…I’m the healer…I’m the healer…

That’s it, we’re done! I hope that was interesting, let me know what you think in the comments (and would like me to write about in the future), also… If you thought the above was at all useful and you want to learn (or are learning) Spanish, please give me a chance and read what I have to say about my book below! Thank you so much for checking out my blog and I hope you’ve enjoyed my writing.

I learned to speak conversational Spanish in six months using TV shows, movies, and even comics: I then wrote a book on how you can, too

I have a whole method and a book I wrote about it called The Telenovela Method where I teach you how to learn Spanish from popular media like TV shows, movies, music, books, etc. that you can all find online for free. It was the #1 new release in the Spanish Language Instruction section on Amazon for nearly a month after it came out and currently has 17 reviews there with a 4.9/5 stars average. It’s available for $7.99-$9.99 for the e-book version depending on who you buy it from (Kindle version on Amazon is now $7.99) and $16.99 for the paperback (occasionally a bit cheaper, again, depending on who you buy it from).

It’s currently available in both e-book and paperback from:

Cheers,
Andrew

The post Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Juanes’ ‘Yerbatero’ Dissected appeared first on Learn Spanish with Andrew.

Learning Spanish From Music Videos: Shakira’s ‘Suerte’

Andrew — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 10:25:15 +0000

And now we get to the second installment of our “learning Spanish from music videos” thing I’m doing based roughly on The Telenovela Method where we use popular entertainment media like music, TV shows, and movies to learn Spanish. The first installment was based on Shakira’s ‘La Tortura’, which you should check out there if you haven’t already.

This time it’s Shakira’s ‘Suerte’ (next time I might pick a different artist, though I’ve already started listening to ‘Ojos Asi’, so you may have to put up with Shakira one more time before we move onto someone else) and it shouldn’t be as long as the ‘La Tortura’ post, but no promises. “Suerte“, by the way, means “luck/lucky”. The theme of the song, again, is some guy she likes, except this time instead of giving him the boot (“a otro perro con ese hueso!”, haha) for banging some other chick, she’s

professing her love, acknowledging her shortcomings (small breasts that cannot be confused with mountains 🙁 ), and begging him to stay with her if he feels the same way. Let’s dive right in.

Ground Rules

4. Now, go back and play the verse we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one.

The Video

(Please note: if you’re in a country where this video is blocked for you try here, here, or here)

The Lyrics

Suerte que en el Sur hayas nacido
Y que burlemos las distancias

Suerte que es haberte conocido
Y por ti amar tierras extrañas

Yo puedo escalar los Andes solo
Por ir a contar tus lunares

Contigo celebro y sufro todo
mis alegrías
Y mis males
Lo ro lo le lo le
Lo ro lo le lo le

Sabes que
Estoy a tus pies

Contigo, mi vida
Quiero vivir la vida
Lo que me queda de vida
Quiero vivir contigo

Suerte que es tener labios sinceros
Para besarte con mas ganas
Suerte que mis pechos sean pequeños
Y no los confundas con montañas

Suerte que herede las piernas firmes
Para correr si me hace falta,
Y estos dos ojos que me dicen
Que han de llorar cuando te vayas

Le ro lo le lo le
Le ro lo le lo le

Sabes que
Estoy a tus pies

Le ro lo le lo le
La felicidad tiene tu nombre
y tu piel

Ya sabes, mi vida
Estoy hasta el cuello por ti
Si sientes algo así
Quiero que te quedes junto a mi

Translation and Analysis

And here’s the first stanza and then the translation:

Suerte que en el Sur hayas nacido
Y que burlemos las distancias

Which translates to:

It’s lucky that you were born in the south [meaning South America]
and that we can make fun of the distance

Ok, the first thing you’ll notice is the use of the subjunctive–which I’ll be making a separate, and very comprehensive, post on quite shortly it’s now up: The Spanish Subjunctive Explained–with the verb “hayas”, which means “you have” and is in the subjunctive because she’s saying that it’s lucky that this happened, which is a personal expression of opinion and therefore requires the subjunctive. “Nacido” is the past participle of the verb “nacer“, which means to be born.

The next word we come to is a bit tricky, and I honestly have to admit I’m not sure I’ve nailed the translation (if not, I’m sure I’ll hear about it in the comments): burlar. Its primary definition is “to evade”, however it could also mean “to make fun of or mock”, and in this case it could be either one, however I personally think that “evade” or “get around”, i.e. “overcome”, makes more sense–maybe they’re making fun of the distance between them, but it makes more sense to me that she’s saying that they’re lucky they got around it. Also, “burlemos” is the present subjunctive form of “burlar” (the subjunctive gets a lot of play in this song). Edit [07/13/2012–a year and a half later, haha]: Nah, I’ve changed my mind on this. Someone asked about it in the comments and mentioned that in her English version of the song in this verse she says “Lucky you were born that far away/ So we could both make fun of distance ” so I’m going to go with the “mocking/making fun of” translation instead. Thanks, Miranda! And if you have a correction for any post on this blog you think might be right, please leave it in the comments, I always appreciate it not only because I get to correct an error I would have otherwise missed which makes my blog just a little bit better but I learn something, too!

Next stanza:

Suerte que es haberte conocido
Y por ti amar tierras extrañas

Which means:

It’s lucky to have known you
and because of you I love foreign lands

“Conocido” is the past participle of “conocer” which means “to know [a person]” (“saber” is used when referring to facts). “Por” in this case means “for” as in “because of”, “amar” means “to love”, though I should point out that when Spanish-speakers want to say that they love somebody (lover, wife, parent, child, etc.), they say “te quiero”, not “te amo”; “amar” has a bit more of a deep, poetic connotation to it and can come off as kind of cheesy or weird if not used properly and, also, it’s only used to express romantic love.

Yo puedo escalar los Andes solo
Por ir a contar tus lunares

Which translates to:

I can climb the Andes alone
to go and count your moles

“Escalar” means to climb, “los Andes” obviously refers to the Andes mountains (remember, Shakira is Colombian and the Andes cut right through Colombia), a “lunar” in this case is a mole or beauty mark.

Contigo celebro y sufro todo
mis alegrías
Y mis males
Lo ro lo le lo le
Lo ro lo le lo le

Sabes que
Estoy a tus pies

Which means:

With you I celebrate and suffer everything
The good times and the bad

le ro lo le etc. etc.

You know that I’m at your feet.

“Contigo” is a contraction of “con” and “tú” (you would never say “con tú”, you’d always say “contigo”), “celebrar” means to celebrate, “suffrir” means to suffer, so far so good.

Now we come to “alegrías” and “males”, which is where it gets tricky because there isn’t really a good direct English translation of either of these words, “joy” is pretty close for “alegría” but it more literally means “happy things” or “happy times” depending on the context, and the same thing with “males” which is the plural of “mal” which is normally an adjective that simply means “bad”, though it can also be a noun, as it is in this case, that means “bad things” or “bad times”.

Lastly, you see the previously mentioned “saber” being used here to state a fact: that she’s at his feet (“sabes que estoy a tus pies”).

Contigo, mi vida
Quiero vivir la vida
Lo que me queda de vida
Quiero vivir contigo

Which means:

With you, my dear [lit. “life”]
I want to live life
What I have left of life
I want to live with you

You see “contigo” again, “vida” literally means “life” and in this first use (“contigo, mi vida”) it’s used to refer to her lover, she’s say that he’s “her life”, then it’s immediately used in its literal sense, I’m sure on purpose, sort of like someone saying “I love you, my love” where “love” is first used as a verb and then as a pronoun.

She then says “Lo que me queda de vida”: we’ve discussed what it means when you see “lo” used like this in the previous ‘La Tortura’ post, but we’ll quickly revisit it: “lo” is a direct object pronoun used in a way in Spanish that’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s sort of like how we use “that” in a very specific context: “that which is”, so in this case “lo que _____” means “that which ______”, so “lo que me queda de vida” literaly means “that which I have left of life”, got it?

Oh, and in case you didn’t figure it out, “quedar” means “to be left or remain”, so in this case with it being reflexive towards “me”, it means “what’s left to me / what remains for me”.

Next verse:

Suerte que es tener labios sinceros
Para besarte con mas ganas
Suerte que mis pechos sean pequeños
Y no los confundas con montañas

And that translates to:

It’s lucky that I have sincere lips
So I can kiss you passionately
Lucky that my breasts are small
And that you don’t confuse them with mountains

“Labio” means “lip”, “sincero”, as you’ve likely guessed, means “sincere” or “honest”. “Besar” means “to kiss”, and tacking the “te” on the end means “to kiss you”.

Now, the “con mas ganas” part is the one that’s going to require a bit of explanation: much to my consternation, I can’t find a Spanish dictionary anywhere that recognizes “ganas” as a noun, but it is a noun and it’s used as a noun here in this particular instance. Normally it would be the present “tu” form of “ganar“, which means “to win”, but not in this case. I personally, from experience and context, would translate it as “enthusiasm”, “appetite”, or “passion”, and now I just tried plugging it into a couple translation engines and they recognize it as a noun and all three of them (Google, Yahoo, and Babel) define it as “desire” which is one I didn’t think of and would probably work just as well as my translation of “passion” in that I could’ve translated that sentence as: “So I can kiss you with more desire”.

After that we get to…boobies! Indeed. No clue why she says this, but she does: “pechos” means “breasts” (in the sense of a woman’s breasts), but do remember that “pecho”, singular, just means “chest” in the normal sense (I know you want to know so I’ll tell you: “tetas” is how you say “tits” or “boobs”). “Los” is the plural of the previously explained direct object pronoun “lo” and refers to her breasts, “confundir” means “to confuse”, and “montaña” means “mountain”. Next!

The following stanza is:

Suerte que herede las piernas firmes
Para correr si me hace falta,
Y estos dos ojos que me dicen
Que han de llorar cuando te vayas

Which means:

It’s lucky that I inherited strong legs
so that I can run if I need to
and these two eyes tell me
that they have to cry when you leave

Now we run into a verb you likely haven’t heard before, “heredar“, which means “to inherit” and isn’t especially notable except for the fact that you don’t hear it often – it can mean to inherit either money or a certain physical or personality trait from your parents. “Pierna” is “leg”, “firma” means “strong” or “firm” depending on the context (in this case I think “strong” makes more sense, though they do look quite firm as well 😀 ).

Then we come to “Para correr si me hace falta”: “correr” means “to run”, but where it gets complicated is at “me hace falta”…now, this particular phrase, “hacer falta”, can have multiple meanings: usually, it’s used to indicate that something’s needed, necessary, lacking, or missing (see the 2nd definition of “falta” under “also: hacer falta”), e.g. “me hace falta suerte” which means “I need some luck” or “Me hace falta sucra” which means “I’m lacking sugar” or “I need some sugar”. The reason for this is that the secondary definiton of “falta”, after the primary definition of “mistake”, is “lack or absence”, and since “hacer” means “to make or do” when you say “hacer falta” you’re “making lack” or “making need/necessity”. Now, when you put “me” before a verb it becomes reflexive back on you so that whatever that verb is doing, it’s doing to you, and so consequently when you say “me hace falta” you’re literally saying “it makes a lack for me” or “it creates an absence for/to me”, you see? It sorta makes sense, haha.

Next, she goes on to talk about his eyes (how typical) and says “Y es que tus dos ojos me dicen que han de llorar cuando te vayas”: “ojo” means “eye”, that’s simple, but what’s this “han de llorar”? Well, “llorar” means “to cry”, that’s easy enough, but the use of “haber” here is rather odd: in this case it means “to have to”, as in “to have to cry”–normally that’s expressed with “tener que”, but if you’ll scroll down to the 3rd definition for haber (here) you’ll see:

haber de hacer algo -> to have to do something

So it can be used to express obligation, to say “to have to”, but it’s unusual and I’ll tell you that 98% of the time I’ve heard someone say that someone has to do something in Spanish, they’ve used “tener que”, not “haber de”, but it can (and is, obviously) done, so it should be noted.

Lastly, we get to “te vayas” which is the present tú subjunctive of “irse” which is a very common Spanish way of saying “to go” in reference to a person leaving to go somewhere and makes sense if you think about it: it’s reflexive, so again the verb is doing whatever it is it does to the person that the reflexive pronoun represents, in this case that verb is “ir” and so “se va”, for example, literally means “you make yourself go” or “me voy” means “I make myself go” (FYI “me voy” is a very common way of saying “I’m leaving”).

Now…you’ll notice that in this particular case it’s in the subjunctive (“te vayas” instead of “te vas”)–why? Well, she says “cuando te vayas” meaning “when you leave”, but his leaving isn’t certain, it’s very much an if/when-you-leave sort of thing, it’s unknown, it’s not a concrete thing, he isn’t scheduled to depart at precisely 9 AM the next morning so therefore we have uncertainty and therefore we have…the subjunctive! Yaaaaay!

Le ro lo le lo le
Le ro lo le lo le

Sabes que
Estoy a tus pies

This is just a repeat chorus, we’ve covered this. Next.

Le ro lo le lo le
La felicidad tiene tu nombre
y tu piel

The word for “happiness” in Spanish is “la felicidad”, and the word for “skin” is “piel”, so what she’s saying here when she literally says “happiness has your name and your skin” is that happiness is, to her, the sound of his name and the feel of his skin against hers…daaaawwwwww, so cute (it’s late, I’m getting weird).

The next, and final verse (though it’s repeated a couple times) is:

Ya sabes, mi vida
Estoy hasta el cuello por ti
Si sientes algo así
Quiero que te quedes junto a mi

Which means:

You already know, my love [lit. “my life”]
I’m up to my neck because of you
If you feel the same way
I want you to stay together with me

As you should already know, “ya” means “still” or “already”, and as we mentioned previously “mi vida” can be used to mean “my love” because in this case she’s saying “my life” in that he is her life, so that’s why we translated it that way.

Now, “estoy hasta el cuello”: “hasta” means “until”, “up to”, or “as far as” and “cuello” means “neck”, so she’s saying she’s up to her neck because of him (up to her neck with what, I don’t know–I’m honestly not quite sure what she’s trying to say here). Then she says “si siente algo así” (“sentir” means “to feel”) which literally means “if you feel something like this”, because “algo” means “something” and “así” means “this way or like this”.

Next she says “Quiero que te quedes junto a mi” which is something like “I want that you keep yourself together with me” because, as we’ve discussed, “quedar” means “to remain or keep” and “junto” means “together”. Now, when “quedar” is made to be reflexive, as in this case, it means “to stay” (if you’ll look at the definition for “quedar” and scroll waaay down to the heading “Pronominal Verb”, you’ll see it) in the personal sense because the verb (“to keep”) is being done to the person it’s reflexive upon, so when you say “te quedes” you’re saying “you keep yourself” meaning “you stay” and…did you notice something else? “te quedes” is in the subjunctive 🙂 Why? Because when she says “Quiero que te quedes” she’s making a wish (first letter in W.E.I.R.D.O., right?), she’s expressing a desire, and that always requires the subjunctive.

That’s it folks, we’re done. Again, I congratulate you if you’ve made it this far because if you have you’ve learned a lot of Spanish in the process. I hope that was interesting, let me know what you think in the comments (and would like me to write about in the future), also… If you thought the above was at all useful and you want to learn (or are learning) Spanish, please give me a chance and read what I have to say about my book below! Thank you so much for checking out my blog and I hope you’ve enjoyed my writing.

I learned to speak conversational Spanish in six months using TV shows, movies, and even comics: I then wrote a book on how you can, too

It’s currently available in both e-book and paperback from:

Cheers,
Andrew

The post Learning Spanish From Music Videos: Shakira’s ‘Suerte’ appeared first on Learn Spanish with Andrew.

Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Shakira’s ‘La Tortura’ Dissected

Andrew — Mon, 08 Nov 2010 03:30:59 +0000

One of the best possible ways to learn Spanish is to use Spanish-language popular media (TV shows, music, movies, etc.) that you actually enjoy (really important here) and/or are interested in, because it does wonders for your focus, concentration, attention to detail, and, consequently, how much you learn and how fast. Plus, those medias will be using actual contemporary spoken language that you would hear and use yourself if you were in-country, as opposed to some dry textbook dialogue about where the biblioteca is or how to tell the waiter that you’re allergic to shellfish, you know?

In this vein, I’ve decided to actually post some music videos (the first two will be Shakira, just because I like her and so do a LOT of other people, so there’s a good chance a decent number of people in my audience will enjoy, or at least be able to tolerate, her stuff) for you to listen to along with the Spanish lyrics and my translation and analysis of them–we’re really going to go in-depth and break everything down here, so stick around, good stuff to come. I should note that I presume you’ve already got some basic understanding and I won’t need to define every single word (such as “ser” or “yo” or “ir”) and explain every bit of grammar, though I will address words I think are a bit outside the basic/intermediate level. Let’s get started.

Ground Rules

4. Now, go back and play the verse we just analyzed several times and see if you can hear and understand everything being said, then go on to the next one.

The Video

The Lyrics

[Sanz:]
Ay payita mia, guardate la poesia
Guardate la alegria pa’ti[Shakira:]
No pido que todos los días sean de sol
No pido que todos los viernes sean de fiesta
Tampoco te pido que vuelvas rogando perdón
Si lloras con los ojos secos
Y hablando de ellaAy amor me duele tanto[Shakira:]
Que te fueras sin decir a dónde
Ay amor fue una tortura…
Perderte[Sanz:]
Yo sé que no he sido un santo
Pero lo puedo arreglar, amor[Shakira:]
No sólo de pan vive el hombre
Y no de excusas vivo yo[Sanz:]
Sólo de errores se aprende
Y hoy sé que es tuyo mi corazón[Shakira:]
Mejor te guardas todo eso
A otro perro con ese hueso
Y nos decimos adios[Shakira:]
No puedo pedir que el invierno perdone a un rosal
No puedo pedir a los olmos que entreguen peras
No puedo pedirle lo eterno a un simple mortal
Y andar arrojando a los cerdos miles de perlas[Sanz:]
Ay amor me duele tanto, me duele tanto
Que no creas más en mis promesas[Shakira:]
Ay amor[Sanz:]
Es una tortura[Shakira:]
Perderte[Sanz:]
Yo sé que no he sido un santo
Pero lo puedo arreglar, amor[Shakira:]
No sólo de pan vive el hombre
Y no de excusas vivo yo[Sanz:]
Sólo de errores se aprende
Y hoy sé que es tuyo mi corazón[Shakira:]
Mejor te guardas todo eso
A otro perro con ese hueso
Y nos decimos adios[Sanz:]
No te vayas, no te vayas
Oye negrita mira, no te rajes
De lunes a viernes tienes mi amor
Déjame el sábado a mi que es mejor
Oye mi negra no me castigues más
Porque allá afuera sin ti no tengo paz
Yo solo soy un hombre muy arrepentido
Soy como la ave que vuelve a su nidoYo se que no he sido un santo
Es que no estoy hecho de carton[Shakira:]
No solo de pan vive el hombre
Y no de excusas vivo yo.[Sanz:]
Solo de errores se aprende
Y hoy se que es tuyo mi corazón[Shakira:]
AAaaay… AAaaay… AAaaay… Ay Ay
Ay todo lo que he hecho por tí
Fue una tortura perderte
Me duele tanto que sea asíSigue llorando perdón
Yo ya no voy a llorar… por tí

Translation and Analysis

“La Tortura”, as you have likely guessed, means “The Torture”. This is a video about the relationship between two former lovers–the man, in this case Alejandro Sanz, has cheated on her (Shakira) and he wants to come back. She really, really, reeeaaalllly likes him and has a hard time saying “no”, but has learned her lesson and “no” it is, finally.

Here’s the first verse:

[Sanz:]

Ay payita mia, guardate la poesia
Guardate la alegria pa’ti

Lot’s going on here. Ok, “payo / paya” is a Peninsular Spanish (i.e. Spanish from Spain, aka “Iberian Spanish”) slang term that means “a non-gypsy person” – lol wtf, right? Gypsies are still a very persistent problem in Europe, and recently got a lot of news attention thanks to France’s President Sarkozy, so payita is an affectionate term of endearment in this case – as you probably already know adding “ito / ita” to the end of any noun makes it “little”, so in this case “payita mia” translates to “my little non-gypsy”. Because some of you are probably wondering, the word for “gypsy” in Spanish is “gitano / gitana”. “Guardar” means to guard, keep, or save, “poesia” means poetry, “alegria” means happiness, and the end where he says “pa’ti” is just a sort of slang or informal contraction of “por ti”, sort of like “don’t” is to “do not”.

So, what we get is:

Ay, my little non-gypsy, save the poetry for yourself
Save the happiness for yourself

Next stanza…

[Shakira:]

No pido que todos los días sean de sol
No pido que todos los viernes sean de fiesta
Tampoco te pido que vuelvas rogando perdón
Si lloras con los ojos secos
Y hablando de ella

Ay amor me duele tanto

Which translates to:

I’m not asking that every day be sunny
I’m not asking that there be a party every Friday
Nor do I ask you to come back begging forgiveness
If you cry with dry eyes,
Speaking about her

Oh my love, it hurts so much

You’ll notice the use of the subjunctive a couple times there (“sean”), which I can’t possibly explain here without making this post even more ridiculously long than it already is, plus I’ve written up an entire article on the subjunctive that does an excellent job of explaining it and includes tons of examples, so if you’re not already familiar with it I would direct you there: The Spanish Subjunctive Explained.

“Tampoco” can be kind of funny, it can literally translate in English to “either” OR “neither”, it can be either one depending on the context, but regardless it always results in the sentence being negative. You could say “Yo tampoco” which would mean “Me neither“, or you could say “Yo no voy tampoco” which would mean “I’m not going either” – see?

“Volver” means to turn around or return and “rogar” means “to beg”, so “vuelves rogando perdón” means to return while begging forgiveness. “Doler” means to hurt, so “me duele tanto” (which you’ll hear repeatedly throughout the song) means “It hurts me so much”.

Alright, next one:

[Shakira:]

Que te fueras sin decir a dónde
Ay amor fue una tortura…
Perderte

Which translates to:

That you left without saying to where
Ay my love, it was a torture…
To lose you

She’s using the past subjunctive form of irse to say “you left” (“te fueras”), the preterite of ser (“fue”) to say “it was” (remember, the preterite conjugation of “ser” and “ir” are identical: you have to determine which it is via the context), and “perder”, as you likely know, means “to lose” – tack “te” on the end and you’ve got “to lose you”. Done. Simple. Next.

[Sanz:]

Yo sé que no he sido un santo
Pero lo puedo arreglar, amor

Which means:

I know I haven’t been a saint
But I can fix it, love

“Sé” is just the regular present “yo” form of “saber” (“to know”), then “no he sido” uses the participle of “ser” which is “sido” along with the yo form of “haber” to create “I haven’t been”. “Santo” means saint, and that’s pretty much it.

Next stanza:

[Shakira:]

No sólo de pan vive el hombre
Y no de excusas vivo yo

Ah…ha ha, now she’s starting to call him on his bullshit, I love this line, it’s very witty and to the point:

Not only on bread does man live
And I don’t live on excuses

In this case “man” is presented as “el hombre” which literally translates as “the man”, which makes it extremely clear that she’s using the universal “Man”, as in all humanity, all people, not just those of the male sex, just to be clear.

Next stanza:

[Sanz:]

Sólo de errores se aprende
Y hoy sé que es tuyo mi corazón

Which translates to:

Only from errors do we learn
And today I know my heart is yours

In this case you’re seeing “se apprende” used in a general manner not referring to anyone in particular, which you’ll see a lot, it just means “one [does this action]” or “[this action] is done”, as in “se habla español” means “Spanish spoken here” or “no se hace eso” means “one does not do that” or “that’s not done”. Here “se apprende” means “it is learned” or “one learns”, does that make sense? Literally it would translate as “Only from errors does one learn”, but that…doesn’t sound as good and doesn’t make as much sense – remember, translations are contextual, they convey meaning, as opposed to the literal definition of each word.

Also, for clarification, I was a bit confused by these lyrics initially and thought that when he said “hoy sé que es tuyo mi corazón”, he was saying “today I know it’s yours, my love” but he was actually saying “today I know my heart is yours” – the confusion comes from a combination of the fact that the word order is a little screwy with the object of the sentence being at the very end along with the fact that “corazón” can mean either “love” or “heart” depending on the context (and if you see “mi corazón” you would immediately think it means “my love”), and either would appear to work there depending on how you do the word order.

Next one:

[Shakira:]
Mejor te guardas todo eso
A otro perro con ese hueso
Y nos decimos adios

This one she says very fast and you’re going to have to really concentrate and probably replay it a few times to catch it; what it means is:

Better save all that for yourself
To another dog with that bone [Take that bone to some other dog]
And let’s say goodbye

Because she uses “te guardas” instead of just “guardas” that makes it reflexive, which means that the verb in question (guardar) applies to the preceding reflexive pronoun (“te” in this case), so in saying “te guardas” she’s saying he should keep it to himself (because “guardas” is being applied to “te”, which means “you”). You see the same thing at the end with “nos decimos adios”, in that case “decimos” is being applied to “nos”, themselves–that’s who they’re saying goodbye to.

Next stanza:

[Shakira:]
No puedo pedir que el invierno perdone a un rosal
No puedo pedir a los olmos que entreguen peras
No puedo pedirle lo eterno a un simple mortal
Y andar arrojando a los cerdos miles de perlas

Which translates into:

I can’t ask winter to spare a rose bush
I can’t ask an elm tree to produce pears
I can’t ask that which is eternal from a mere mortal
And go casting thousands of pearls before swine

“Perdonar” simply means to pardon or excuse (“Perdone” is the most common way of saying “excuse me”) so it makes perfect sense that in this context it translates to “spare”. “Entreguen” is the present form of “entregar”, which literally means “to hand over, deliver, or turn in” and is how you would express a plant producing or bearing fruit in Spanish, you say that the plant “turns over” its fruit, make sense?

Now, we get to “lo eterno a un simple mortal”…ok, what’s happening here is that “lo” is a neuter article used in a way in Spanish that’s kind of hard to explain, but it’s sort of like how we use “that” in a very specific context: “that which is”. That’s the best possible translation I can make out of the use of “lo _____”, it means “that which is ______”, so “lo eterno” (“eterno” is an adjective that means “eternal”) means “that which is eternal”. Also, “simple” literally translates to, as you might have already guessed, “simple” but can also mean “mere” (see here and look at the 4th definition) and that’s precisely what it does in this context.

“Andar” has a primary definition that means “to walk”, but can also be used in all sorts of other different ways. In this case it simply means “to go about”, as in “to go about doing something”. A better primary definition instead of “to walk” might be “to go”, as you can say “Ando a la casa” means “I’m going to the house” but you can also say “Las cosas andan mal” which means “Things are going badly”–see? Now, the next word you see after “andar” is “arrojando”, which is the “-ing” form (properly called the “gerund”) of “arrojar” which means “to throw or hurl”. “miles” is the plural of “mil” which means “thousand”, “cerdo” means “pig”, and “perlas” is “pearls”.

Right, next!

[Sanz:]
Ay amor me duele tanto, me duele tanto
Que no creas más en mis promesas

Translates to:

Ay my love it hurts so much, it hurts so much
That you no longer trust my promises

Pretty straightforward: we’ve already covered “doler” and “me duele tanto”, “creas” is the present subjunctive “tu” form of “creer” which means “to believe”, and “promesas” is “promises”. Done.

[Shakira:]
Ay amor

[Sanz:]
Es una tortura

[Shakira:]
Perderte

Already covered this, shouldn’t be any confusion here. Next:

[Sanz:]
Yo sé que no he sido un santo
Pero lo puedo arreglar, amor

[Shakira:]
No sólo de pan vive el hombre
Y no de excusas vivo yo

[Sanz:]
Sólo de errores se aprende
Y hoy sé que es tuyo mi corazón

[Shakira:]
Mejor te guardas todo eso
A otro perro con ese hueso
Y nos decimos adios

Again, this is just a repeat of a previous verse. Next.

[Sanz:]
No te vayas, no te vayas
Oye negrita mira, no te rajes
De lunes a viernes tienes mi amor
Déjame el sábado a mi que es mejor
Oye mi negra no me castigues más
Porque allá afuera sin ti no tengo paz
Yo solo soy un hombre muy arrepentido
Soy como la ave que vuelve a su nido

Yo se que no he sido un santo
Es que no estoy hecho de carton

Holy crap. This one’s going to take a while. Ok. First, here’s the translation and then we’ll go back and analyze it bit-by-bit:

Don’t go, don’t go
Listen, baby, don’t run away
From Monday to Friday you have my love
Leave Saturday to me, it’s better that way
Listen baby, don’t punish me anymore
Because, out there, without you I have no peace
I’m just a very repentant man
I’m like the bird that returns to its nest

I know I haven’t been a saint
It’s that I’m not made of cardboard

The first thing that might confuse you is the word “negrita” and…oh boy, this word. This is one of the funniest and most difficult words in the Spanish language to explain to English speakers. Let me just first say that it’s a very common term of endearment that’s roughly equivalent to our “baby” or “sweetie”–that’s what it means and that’s all it means. It does not have any kind of racial connotation. That said, the word for “black” in Spanish is “negro”, which is what this word is derived from, and means something sort of like “my little blackie” (but minus the racial connotation that would obviously have in English) and what it literally translates to is…brace yourself…”my little negro”. I swear I’m not jerking your chain. Here, straight from Wikipedia:

However, in Spanish-speaking countries such as Argentina, Chile, and Uruguay where there are few people of African origin and appearance, negro (negra for females) is commonly used to refer to partners, close friends^[9] or people in general independent of skin color…Negrito has come to be used to refer to a person of any ethnicity or color, and also can have a sentimental or romantic connotation similar to “sweetheart,” or “dear” in English…

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negro#In_other_languages

It’s just a term of endearment, and despite what it literally means, it doesn’t have any kind of racial connotation–you could very well see a couple in Colombia or Argentina with white skin and blond hair referring to each other as “mi negrito” and “mi negrita”, no big deal. Ok, moving on…

The next thing he says is “no te rajes”. “Rajar” is a verb that literally means “to crack or slice”, however it’s also used as a slang word meaning many different things, one of which is “to fail, give up, or run away”, which is what it means here. After that he says,

De lunes a viernes tienes mi amor
Déjame el sábado a mi que es mejor

This is such a fun song, you get a bit of insight into the Latin American culture as well as learning the language. He says that she has his love from Monday to Friday, but that it would be best if she let him have Saturday as “his day”, or as a sort of day off–meaning that he’s faithful to her 6 out of 7 days a week and that ought to be enough for her, she should let him go screw around on Saturday because it’ll be good for their relationship. This is a very common aspect of their culture: in many places the men are expected to cheat, to sleep around, they’re not considered “men” if they don’t, and the women are expected to tolerate it. It’s part of the “machismo” culture. The general feeling seems to be that as long as he’s a good boyfriend/husband the rest of the time and takes care of his woman/family, and he’s discreet about it, then there’s nothing wrong with him having a mistress or two and occasionally taking some time off to go mess around with them. That’s just how men are, and that’s that. So it’s not surprising at all, to me, to see these sort of lyrics in a Spanish song.

After that we encounter the words “castigues”, which is the imperative (command) form of “castigar” which means “to punish”, and “arrepentido”, which is an adjective that means “repentant”.

And in the next line we encounter more of the same as above:

Soy como la ave que vuelve a su nido

“Ave” means “bird”, “vuelve” is from the verb “volver” which means “to return”, and “nido” is “nest”. He’s like the bird that returns to its nest: she’s his nest, and although he may occasionally stray, he’ll always come back to his home, lol 😀

Now, after that you’ll see, in the last line, “no estoy hecho de carton” which literally translates to “I’m not made of cardboard”, but this is not the contextual translation, this is how Spanish-speakers say “I’m not made of stone”, it’s their equivalent expression that simply means “I’m not emotionless”, it means the same thing, even though the word they use is “carton” which means “cardboard” instead of “stone”.

Alright, finally, we’re almost done, here’s the very last part:

[Shakira:]
No solo de pan vive el hombre
Y no de excusas vivo yo.

[Sanz:]
Solo de errores se aprende
Y hoy se que es tuyo mi corazón

[Shakira:]
AAaaay… AAaaay… AAaaay… Ay Ay
Ay todo lo que he hecho por tí
Fue una tortura perderte
Me duele tanto que sea así

Sigue llorando perdón
Yo ya no voy a llorar… por tí

Which translates to:

Man doesn’t live on bread alone
And I don’t live on excuses

Only from errors do we learn
And today I know my heart is yours

Ay, all that I’ve done for you
It was a torture to lose you
It hurts me so that it’s like this
Keep on crying sorry
I…
I’m not going cry for you anymore

Alright, so we’ve got some previous verses repeated and then we get to: “todo lo que he hecho por tí”, which means “all that I’ve done for you”. Here you’re seeing, again, the use of the neuter term “lo” in the form of “lo que” which, as we’ve already learned, means “that which” or “that which is”. In this case in functions, with the “yo” form of haber (“he”), to mean “that which I have”. Then you’ve got “hecho” which is the past participle of “hacer” (“to do”), so you get “that which I’ve done”.

Also, you’ll see some stuff you’ve already seen (“me duele tanto perderte”, which you know means “it hurt so much to lose you”), and then you see “sea así”. “Sea” is the subjunctive of “ser” and is used in this case because it’s an expression of emotion. “Así” means “so” or “this way” or “in this manner”. “Sigue” is the imperative of “seguir” which means “to continue”, “llorando” is the gerund of “llorar”, so she’s saying “continue crying ‘sorry'”. “ya” is a funny word and literally translates to “already” or “still” and you’ll see it used a LOT in Spanish, many times where we wouldn’t used the words “already” or “still”, and if you’ll click that link that goes to the dictionary definition of it and scroll down to the 4th definition of the word, you’ll see “any more” listed as one of contexts in which “ya” can be used.

Edit (07/22/12): Please see JLA’s excellent comment here concerning the use of idioms and biblical language in this post. I’d like to point out that some of my translations are intentionally a bit literal in order to help the learner understand how I’m getting the meaning that I am.

Well that’s that. We’re done. I sincerely congratulate you if you’ve managed to stay with me this long, if you needed to break up this post into a few separate learning sessions I don’t blame you, in fact I’d be shocked if you didn’t. I highly recommend you note all new words that you’ve learned for review, my personally preferred method of this is a program called Anki (it’s an SRS: Spaced Repetition Software). I hope that was interesting, let me know what you think in the comments (and would like me to write about in the future), also… If you thought the above was at all useful and you want to learn (or are learning) Spanish, please give me a chance and read what I have to say about my book below! Thank you so much for checking out my blog and I hope you’ve enjoyed my writing.

I learned to speak conversational Spanish in six months using TV shows, movies, and even comics: I then wrote a book on how you can, too

It’s currently available in both e-book and paperback from:

Cheers,
Andrew

The post Learning Spanish from Music Videos: Shakira’s ‘La Tortura’ Dissected appeared first on Learn Spanish with Andrew.