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    Julio Iglesias

    Ella → English translation→ English

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She

Click to see the original lyrics (Spanish)
I got tired of begging her,
I got tired of telling her
that I'm dying of grief without her.
She didn’t want to listen to me anymore.
When she opened her mouth
it was only to tell me: “I don’t love you anymore”.
 
I felt that my life
was falling into an abyss, 1
deep and dark, like my fate.
 
I wanted to find oblivion
with my friends in the bar 2
but those mariachis
and that tequila
made me cry.
 
I got tired of begging her.
With tears in my eyes
I lifted my glass and drank to her.
She couldn't ignore me.
It was the last toast
of a vagabond to a queen.
 
The mariachis kept silent.
I didn’t even notice when
the glass fell from my weak hand. 3
 
She wanted to stay
when she saw my sadness,
but it was already written on the wall
that that night
I would lose her love.
 
She wanted to stay
when she saw my sadness,
but it was already written on the wall
that that night
I would lose her love.
 
  • 1. Closer to the original: “was lost in an abyss”.
  • 2. Literally: “Jalisco style”. Jalisco is a state in Mexico, which is famous for producing tequila. The expression “al estilo Jalisco” means to drown love sorrows with friends in a bar while listening to the music played by mariachi.
  • 3. Literally: "Glass slipped from my hand without my noticing it".
Original lyrics

Ella

Click to see the original lyrics (Spanish)

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Julio Iglesias: Top 3
1.Me olvidé de vivirSubtitles
2.Je n'ai pas changé
3.AbrázameSubtitles
Idioms from "Ella"
1.Al estilo Jalisco
Comments
roster 31roster 31
   Wed, 29/06/2016 - 13:22

¡Así que aquí traes a Julio cantando los éxitos de los charros mejicanos,,,!

Ya que pides "proofreading", te daré Mi opinión.
En primer lugar te diré, en caso de que no lo sepas, que esta canció ya se ha traducido en LT, bajo el título "me cansé de rogarle", interpretada por José Alfredo Jiménez.
Ahora, en mi opinión, esta canción ranchera, una de las más populares del repertorio mejicano, no necesita mucha interpretación. Por ejemplo, las palabras "al estilo Jalisco", traducidas literalmente, darían carácter y ambiente a la canción. Lo que tu dices, en la traducción, debería ser parte del comentario. Además, ya he visto que lo has entregado como un 'dicho', de manera que queda todo bien explicado.

Some corrections, or suggestions:
1. First stanza - "that I dying" --> "that I am dying" or "that I die"
Fourth verse - I don't think you need "anymore"
And ends - "If she opened..."/"...it was just to tell me..."
2. Next - I prefer "was lost", because "I felt' y "fell" sounds like a repetition.
3. Next long stanza - "No podía despreciarme". I think the idea is just "She couldn't" ("No way she would dare").
"Vagabond". Can't you say "bohemian"?
4. "but it was already written on the wall". Why "on the wall"? "It was (already) written" (from the Bible) is enough. (You can submit this, as a 'dicho').
"I lost her love" --> "I would lose...".

Help yourself

AldefinaAldefina
   Wed, 29/06/2016 - 19:33

Rosa, gracias por tu comentario y las sugerencias. :)

Te respondí en un mensaje.

roster 31roster 31
   Sun, 11/09/2016 - 11:32

I appreciated your message.

michealtmichealt    Fri, 30/09/2016 - 19:22

"fell" (and footnote 1). In English you can't use the simple past here (actually you can if you don't mind sounding like someone who doesn't understand English tenses), you can use either a pluperfect ("had fallen") or an imperfect ("was falling"); "was lost" (a passive perfect) is OK (whether that's because unlike a perfect active it refers to something whose commencement is anterior to the time referenced or because it's actually describing a state rather than an event is beyond me, but it's one or the other), and so is the imperfect passive ("was being lost"), but I would be inclined to say either "haf fallen" or "was lost" and would be extremely unlikely to say "was being lost".

In the last line of the last two stanzas, once again simple past doesn't really work. Here you could say "had lost", "was losing" (explicit imperfect), or "would lose", depending on whether you think that, at the time referenced, losing her love had already happened, was in the process of happening, or was going to happen later that night.

(30th Sept: corrected atypo - looked at this message because it's relevant to Andrzej's last comment and spotted a nasty typo ("has" for "had").

roster 31roster 31
   Sun, 11/09/2016 - 11:30

Hi Tom! Thank you for your intervention.
In regards to your first comment, I would say, "was falling" or " was getting lost" and, for the second one, notice that "would lose" has already been suggested.
In any case, it is up to Andrzej to make the changes, ir he consider them necessary.

Best regards

AldefinaAldefina
   Mon, 12/09/2016 - 17:28

Thank you, Tom, for a grammar lesson. :)

“Perdió” was in Preterite - Simple Past, so without thinking I used the same tense in English. The thing is in Spanish pluperfect (as you call it) or Past Perfect (as I was taught) also exists: “había perdido”, but it wasn’t used in that sentence.

There are parallels between English and Spanish tenses, but I noticed that Spanish speakers don’t seem to be very precise when choosing them and that applies especially to the Latin Americans, who tend to simplify both their life and the way they speak and avoid using more complicated grammatical forms. Mind you, it’s a Mexican song.

I believe it should have been: ”Yo sentí que mi vida se había perdido en un abismo”.

I believe “had fallen” is the best choice and I used it, because the meaning is the closest to the original. As for the comment - how about “had been lost”?

The whole songs tells a story that happened in the past, so I wondered why “would lose”. Only now I decided to check. For me “would” was usually used as a conditional form or to express beliefs or for politeness and I forgot that it was just a past form of “will”. Now I hope to remember that.

I wanted to write “I had lost”, but I changed my mind and following Rosa’s and your suggestions I wrote “would lose” instead. Anyway this stanza was written correctly in Spanish using Imperfect Subjunctive, this is why “I had lost” wouldn’t be a good option.

@ Rosa: I'm Sorry that I disagreed with your last correction. Only now I know I was wrong.

roster 31roster 31
   Tue, 13/09/2016 - 14:29

Let me add:
"se perdió" is in preterit, yes, and I suggested to continue "was falling/ was getting lost", as a progressive action, at that time. Besides, the original, sung by Mexicans, uses the imperfect tense, "se perdía...". (It didn't happened 'just like that').
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fmxj9JE3vc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO8ovBN-8is

"perdiera su amor" -->I wondered why “would lose”. It is another 'Mexican way' avoiding the conditional. Actually, it should be "perdería".

AldefinaAldefina
   Tue, 13/09/2016 - 21:32

Julio Iglesias in his covers often used to change some words. Sometimes new words changed the sense, but at times didn’t make sense at all - an example:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/if-you-go-away-si-t%C3%BA-te-vas.html
(you may want to read my translation, Rosa; should be fine, I had only problem with the ending, it’s interpretative and not everyone may agree with it, but it was the only idea I had how to do it)

In the first stanza he sings (I corrected the lyrics on the site):

If you go away
On this summer day
Then you might as well
Take the sun away
All the birds that flew
In the summer sky
AND our love was new
And our hearts were high
AND the day was young
And the night was long
And the moon stood still
For the night bird song

In the original song there’s “When” instead of “AND”. The second change is okay, but the first one sounds strange.

And here:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/moliendo-caf%C3%A9-grinding-coffee.html-2
I don’t like “decir”. The original “gemir” seems to make more sense.

As for this particular song now I understand why you suggested “was falling”. The thing is that as long as the text of the cover makes sense I believe I should translate it and not the original version.

And as for the Latin American grammar and “way of life” - here’s a good example:
https://lyricstranslate.com/en/its-never-too-late-nunca-es-muy-tarde.html

I showed it once to you - a long time ago, but Tom probably have not seen it yet.

Now let’s wait for Tom’s comment.

michealtmichealt    Mon, 19/09/2016 - 04:36

"In the first stanza he sings...."
In the video of If you go away, Julio Iglesias sings "when" in the two places you have shown "AND". Changing the first "when" to "and" would result in making no sense at all; changing the second "when" to "and" changes the meaning a bit but the result would still make sense (of a sort - it's much nicer without that change). I'm surprised you thought he sang "and" instead of "when" in those two lines, because the sound pretty clear. Or have I misinterpreted your comment, and you meant that turcanin had transcribed it incorrectly?

I've commented on the other two songs in the appropriate place.

AldefinaAldefina
   Tue, 20/09/2016 - 18:52

Sorry, Tom, I made a mistake, I meant the initial version that was submitted by “turcanin”, who posted many lyrics full of mistakes. I changed both AND -> WHEN.

As I hear - without any doubts - in the second place Julio indeed sings “when”, but in first place it’s “and our love was new…” and that doesn’t make sense. Please check it once again.

roster 31roster 31
   Wed, 21/09/2016 - 13:12

Regardless what Julio may says, the lyrics are correct, they compare and the structure repeats.
First and second:
"when/and" (love and heart)
and then
"when/and" (day and night)
In any case, "when" or "and" won't make much difference.

Andrzej, I see that you edited the lyrics recently, but you missed a couple things. I'll point them out right there, on the translation.

michealtmichealt    Thu, 22/09/2016 - 01:48

Rosa, if the first "when" were "and" the lyrics wouldn't make sense; with the first being "when" it would be possible for the second to be "and" and make sense, but if the first were "and" the second wouldn't make sense with "and".

In some British English dialects it's possible to use the the goidelic absolute construction but both lines contain "was" which is incompatible with an absolute construct because it's a finite verb (and anyway, this song is not in a goidelic-influenced dialect of English) so "and" can't be being used like that here.

So whether it's "when" or "and" does make much difference - it's the difference between meaningless and having meaning, which seems to me to be very much difference indeed.

roster 31roster 31
   Thu, 22/09/2016 - 02:33

I think you are confusing me. What I, basically, said was that the lyrics, as they are now, are correct:

"When our love was new
And our hearts were high
When the day was young
And the night was long".

michealtmichealt    Thu, 22/09/2016 - 22:43

I understood you were saying that (and agreed with you), but you also said ' "when" or "and" won't make much difference ', and that's what I was disagreeing with.

roster 31roster 31
   Thu, 22/09/2016 - 23:12

My mistake. I meant that, after the first'when' any 'and' would be acceptable.

michealtmichealt    Thu, 22/09/2016 - 01:35

I agree that the second place is much clearer than the first. But I still hear the first as "when our..."; the absence of a "d" is pretty clear, but not decisive (as people often say "an" for "and") but the vowel quality indicates "e" not "o" - also not conclusive as some people nasalise the vowel in "and" and switch it from "a" to "e" - but I don't think I've ever heard anyone say "and" while both dropping the "d" and changing the vowel that way. The initial u-glide is there too, but is very brief and isn't as clear as it is in the second place (which also has non-nasalised "e" for the vowel).

AldefinaAldefina
   Thu, 22/09/2016 - 17:34

Once again I’ve checked all his recordings that I was able to find using my high-end Sennheiser headphones. I hear always “and our love was new and…”. The thing is in this place he swallows “d” at the end - he sings “an”. In other places I clearly hear “and”.
This is the recording with much better sound:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1j4MRFNegJs

Anyway, Julio’s English pronunciation is not good, he was never able to learn it properly.

michealtmichealt    Thu, 22/09/2016 - 22:39

In that video, I'm not sure which he sings "when our love ..." or "and our love ..."; sometimes I hear it as "when", but sometimes I hear it as "and" and I hear "when" only a tiny bit more often than "and" (I played the first 6 lines 20 times to see which I hear most often, and got 11 "when"and 9 "and". But "and" makes no sense there, so if he knew enough English for that he would have been singing "when" and if his English pronunciation is not good it could be just that he "when" sounds a bit like "and" (or vice versa, but surely he got hold of a version of the lyrics than makes sense).

roster 31roster 31
   Wed, 14/09/2016 - 02:45

Extra notes:

The original of this song is French: "Ne me quitte pas".

We discussed "Moliendo café" some time ago.

I didn't suggest "was falling" moved by the original; it was my own intuition and, I still like it that way: At that moment, in the past, "sintió" that something "was happening" to him.

I don't understand why you are sending me a song in English, translated by a girl from Deutschland, as an example of Latin American grammar and “way of life". (?)

Tom may or may not comment, but we'll wait.

AldefinaAldefina
   Wed, 14/09/2016 - 16:06

Oh, I haven't noticed that she was from Germany. I just checked that she has mentioned Spanish as her native language and her behavior was “very Latin American”.

Recently in one of the books that I read Wojciech Cejrowski - a famous Polish traveler - described from his own experience a typical Latin American - nice, friendly, but very, very lazy. No wonder that “sistema mañana” is the common practice there.

Rosa, after digesting it I decided to follow your and Tom’s suggestion. Indeed, “was falling” sounds better in the given context, no matter what Julio sings.

I think what Tom wrote already is enough. In fact I have used the options that he suggested.

sandringsandring    Thu, 22/09/2016 - 18:41

Hello, guys
1/ that I was dying from grief without her. - grief isnt a disease
2/ was down into the abyss
3/ Rosa is right A Bohemian is different from a vagabond A TOAST TO A QUEEN
4/my GLASS SLIPPED FROM MY HAND WITHOUT MY NOTICING IT
Typing with the left hand so no nicies

roster 31roster 31
   Thu, 22/09/2016 - 19:46

You are too good to be true...

AldefinaAldefina
   Fri, 30/09/2016 - 17:01

1. It’s not only a disease that might kill you, Nadia. You can die FROM a disease or FROM an injury, but also OF hunger, thirst, … and OF sorrow, sadness or grief. It’s a common expression and I don’t understand why you don’t like it.
Check this: https://www.google.pl/search?q=%22dying+of+grief%22&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&cl...

2. I think both translations are fine and it’s difficult for me to tell what sounds better. I hope Tom will tell what he thinks.

3. Let me quote what I wrote earlier to Rosa:
“I didn’t want to write “bohemian”. For me it means a gypsy. I would have translated it this way in case of a Spanish song, but I know nothing about gypsies in Mexico. It’s safer to say “vagabond”. It expresses the same idea.”

Let me add: I have a serious problem every time I have to translate “bohemio” or “bohemian”. Most of the Polish-English dictionaries translate these words as “Czech” only. Some also as “gypsy” and none of these words fits here. The same applies to Spanish-Polish dictionaries. Spanish-English dictionaries tell you only it’s “bohemian”.

In Polish you can say “bohema” (in English “Bohemianism”) meaning a group of artists, who practice an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic, or literary pursuits.

According to Wikipedia: Bohemians may be wanderers, adventurers, or vagabonds. I used the last expression and it was not for the first time I did it in my translations.

I agree that “bohemian” sounds almost like “bohemio” and because of that it seems to be an automatic choice, but I’m not sure whether the meaning is the same. I tried many times to find the answer, but I never found it.

This guy wasn’t a gypsy and he was not an artist, so the word “vagabond” seems to be the best choice. His beloved also wasn’t a queen, he just compared himself to poor vagabond and her to the queen. In my opinion other options wouldn’t work in this comparison.

* Thanks Nadia for correcting one stupid mistake. No one else has noticed it. :D I wonder why I made it, because three verses higher I wrote correctly (“I drank to her”).

4. It was my interpretation. I liked what I wrote and nothing has changed, so I added your suggestion as a comment.

michealtmichealt    Fri, 30/09/2016 - 20:28

Picking upon point 2 where you say you hope I'll tell what I think: I think I already commented on that, but now has introduced a new option so I guess I should comment again.
The issues about tense and aspect are clear when just verbs are at issue, but what Nadia introduced (was down into the abyss) is in new territority, where a lot of the meaning has been moved from the verb to other parts of the phrase, and the verb being used (was) is clearly active voice and both stative and imperfect aspect, and past tense so that unlike a simple past like "fell" it is usable in this context. Despite that, I wouldn't translate as Nadia has; probably "into" should be "in" (into with the verb "to be" is used in a completely different context) but that's not the problem - the problem is that the Spanish text uses a verb which describes a change of state (whether ongoing - imperfect aspect - or already taken place - perfect aspect) and her English doesn't, it describes a static state. That probably reads as horribly pedantic, but the alternative description is something like "that English just doesn't mean the same as the original Spanish" without any explanation and I don't think that's an adequate description.

So it still wants a verb which describes a change of state. The tense has to be past tense, and the aspect can be either perfect (leading to past perfect - English pluperfect) or imperfect (English past compound imperfect) despite the Spansh being a simple preterite perfect - this is one of those cases where a Spanish pretérito perfecto simple is used for a pretérito anterior or a pretérito pluscuamperfecto or, perhaps less likely, for a pretérito imperfecto or copretérito. So I still think the possibilities are "had fallen into", "was falling into", "was lost in" (and - at a push - "was being lost in", "had been lost in")

I recall reading in a nasty boring grammar text that Spanish allows such use of the pretérito perfecto simple (and knowing that enabled me to understand some Spanish that I previously didn't) but the book was so boring that I didn't keep it and can't remember who wrote it or what it was called.

sandringsandring    Fri, 30/09/2016 - 20:43

Dear, to a Gaelic native speaker I'll forgive even such a boring lecture on tenses. As a pro translator I don't translate words, I translate pictures or mental images. I used "into the abyss" to avoid a verb because the particle itself shows dynamism and an ongoing process. As simple as that. Are you into Theoretical Grammar? Sounds like it. With respect :)

sandringsandring    Fri, 30/09/2016 - 17:14

Andrzej, thank you for a nice translation. :)

AldefinaAldefina
   Fri, 30/09/2016 - 17:25

It was my pleasure, Nadia. :)

BTW, I just made a request of "A Way Out" (Peter Hammill) thinking about you. This song was one of the most difficult I ever translated. Almost the whole text was based on idioms with "out". Would be interesting to see your translation.

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