Night of guard
Layla| 1. | Noche de ronda |
| 2. | Arráncame la vida |
| 3. | María Bonita |
alwaysgrowing
Sun, 25/05/2014 - 05:09
Hi Layla,I generally liked the translation but I have a few suggestions that I think sound better in common English.
Night of Guard has no real meaning in English but "Night Watchman" does, it is a better translation when taken in the context of the song.
Como ella se fue should be "How she went away"
Con quien esta should be "Who is she with?"
De tanto esperar should be "From so much waiting"k
No son buenas sh/be "They aren't good"
Por llorar translates better "With tears"
Hope that helps you,
Sincerely,
Al Nunez
una de dos piedras
Tue, 29/07/2014 - 01:25
Unfortunately I doubt very much whether the translator will ever see this comment. Quite obviously she didn't see mine, which was submitted nearly a year ago. She was last seen at the site in 2012.
I disagree with your suggestion of Night Watchman. I think that in the context of the song, noche de ronda refers to a night serenader. See the Berlitz Spanish/English dictionary for that meaning. As I said in my comment above, why would a night watchman hurt him, wound his heart? But a night sereneder passing by his balcony singing a sad song would. Neither the translator nor you have really understood the deep meaning of the song at all. It is about the idea of "making the rounds." The song plays on the idea of three things that "make the rounds": the troubadour who makes the rounds at night serenading people, the moon which "makes the rounds" when it appears to go around the earth each night, and the beloved one who went away and abandoned him and is "making the rounds" with who knows who.
Also I disagree with your interpretation of "como ella se fue" here. In the line it does not mean "how" though in verse one it does. But in this line it means "as" "as she went away" The song is comparing the moon going on its nightly rounds to his beloved "making the rounds" by going away and abandoning him. Or instead of "as" one could use that grammatical atrocity "like", which everyone would understand.
Because the translation has so many mistakes that are unlikely to be corrected, I think I'll take a try at a translation myself.
una de dos piedras
Tue, 29/07/2014 - 01:31
Many mistakes, some regarding the meaning, some grammatical. The title and the first line make no sense at all and the author never corrected them.
una de dos piedras
Sun, 17/08/2014 - 23:17
The typos in the transcription that I mentioned in comments above have now all been corrected by a moderator. However, because I doubt that the author of translation # 1 will ever see them or make the necessary adjustments in her translation, or make any other corrections, for that matter, I still think my effort is still worthwhile.
Sherif
Sun, 17/11/2019 - 11:19
I came across this song by accident, and what a beautiful song it is, specially if you understand the meaning.. so I would like to thank the user (Una De Dos Piedras) whom his explanation made me understand the true meaning of the song.
By the way, this song was one of the reasons that I started learning Spanish.
Night of Guard doesn't seem to have a clear meaning. Noche de Ronda can mean night watchman, and perhaps that is what you have in mind. But it can also mean a troubadour who "makes the rounds" at night serenading people. That is clearly the meaning here. The troubadour passes by his balcony and his sad song hurts him. Why would a night watchman hurt him? The next-to-last line of the first verse of the transcription has a typo. The word hiere should be hieres. So the proper translation of the last two lines of verse one should be:
How you hurt me, how you wound my heart. These two lines are not questions; they are statements.
In the chorus you have him asking tell me if this night you'll be on guard. The meaning is rather, tell me if tonight you will be making the rounds (as his beloved did when she went away.)
There is another typo in the transcription which leads to an error in translation. "Con quien esta" should be "Con quien estás" You can hear Alejandro pronounce the s very clearly in the recording. So the question he is asking is, with whom are you (the moon). He wants to know if perhaps the moon is with his beloved. If so he wants it to tell her some things.
There is also another typo in the transcription which leads to an error in translation. "Quedan penas" is a typo. The line should be "Que dan penas" That they give pain.