• José José

    Cuarenta y veinte → English translation→ English

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Cuarenta y veinte

Mentiras son todas mentiras
cosas que dice la gente,
decir que este amor es prohibido
que tengo cuarenta y tu veinte.
 
Que yo soy otoño en tu vida
y tu eres dulce primavera,
no saben que guardo un verano
que cuando te miro te quema.
 
Cuarenta y veinte,
cuarenta y veinte,
es el amor lo que importa y no
lo que diga la gente.
cuarenta y veinte,
cuarenta y veinte,
toma mi mano, camina conmigo,
mirando de frente.
 
No importa que a mi no me entiendan
y que por lo bajo comenten
que existe una gran diferencia,
que tengo cuarenta y tu veinte.
Que yo tengo muchas vivencias
y tu tienes tanta inocencia,
no saben que nuestro secreto
es tu juventud y mi experiencia.
 
Translation

Forty and twenty

Lies are all lies,
things that people say,
that this love is forbidden,
‘cause I’m forty and you're twenty.
 
That I am the autumn in your life
and you are a sweet springtime.
They don’t know that I keep a summer,
that when I look at you, it burns you.
 
Forty and twenty,
forty and twenty,
it’s love that’s important and not
what people say.
Forty and twenty,
forty and twenty,
take my hand, go with me
looking straight forward.
 
It doesn’t matter they don’t understand me
and therefore they criticize me,
that there’s such a big difference,
‘cause I’m forty and you're twenty,
'cause I have lots of experience
and you have so much innocence,
they don’t know that our secret
is your youth and my experience.
 
The author of translation requested proofreading.
It means that he/she will be happy to receive corrections, suggestions etc about the translation.
If you are proficient in both languages of the language pair, you are welcome to leave your comments.
José José: Top 3
Comments
HeathHeath    Sat, 08/09/2018 - 04:31

Thanks for providing a good translation into English, Aldefina! It's a song that means a lot to me.

Here are my comments, as a native English writer fluent also in Spanish:

"Lies are all lies,
things that people say,
that this love is forbidden,
‘cause I’m forty and your twenty." -- 'your' should be 'you're'
"That I am the autumn in your life
and you are a sweet spring."
-- Because 'spring' is a word with so many meanings in English, to avoid poetically unhelpful ambiguity I would say here 'you are sweet springtime' instead of 'you are a sweet spring'. The context made it clear already though, so this suggestion is only that: a suggestion to use a synonymous, related word to the also accurate one you picked.

"They don’t know that I keep a summer,
that when I look at you, it burns you.
Forty and twenty,
forty and twenty,
it’s love, that’s important and not" -- No comma in this line! Its presence actually messes up the syntax.
"what people say.
Forty and twenty,
forty and twenty,
take my had, go with me" -- 'had' typo, should be 'hand' of course.
"looking straight forward.
It doesn’t matter that they don’t understand me
and therefore they comment it so badly,"
-- 'comment it so badly' is quite awkward English. It should be something like 'criticize it'

"that there’s such a huge difference,"
-- 'such a huge difference' might be hyperbole. I would go with 'a big difference' for 'una gran diferencia'

" ‘cause I’m forty and your twenty. -- Again 'your' should be 'you're'
"That I'm very experienced"
-- This translation loosely conveys the same thing, but might 'I have lived many experiences' be better? I get the impression that the Spanish 'vivencia' is a richer, more meaningful word than simply 'experience', and given its origins in the verb 'vivir' it seems appropriate--in the absence of a perhaps better one-to-one word fit for the noun 'vivencias' to include the 'vivir' meaning using the verb itself as I've suggested, "have (lived) many experiences". It wouldn't be commonly expressed this way in speech, but common enough in poetry to phrase it this way.

"and you have so much innocence,
they don’t know that our secret
is your youth and my experience."

:-D I just love it! Again thank you.

AldefinaAldefina
   Sat, 22/09/2018 - 17:23

Yes, it’s a strange kind of typo that I make from time to time and you are not the only one who noticed it. My brain strangely tends to abbreviate some expressions, e.g. you’re → your, he’s → his or it’s → its and the spellchecker is unable to notify me.

Thanks for the suggestions. I made some corrections. A few comments:

- I think “criticize me” sounds better than “it”, ‘cause it goes better with the previous line.

- “Vivencias” means “experiences”. Have a look: http://www.spanishdict.com/translate/vivencias I rewrote it in a literal way and I think it was not needed to interpret it. Have a look!