Guantanamera - English translation

Pete Seeger

Guantanamera

36 translations

Also performed by:

Buena Vista Social Club

Celia Cruz

+10 more

Original lyrics

Translation

Guantanamera

Yo soy un hombre sincero

De donde crece la palma,

Y antes de morirme quiero

Echar mis versos del alma.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

Mi verso es de un verde claro

Y de un carmín encendido,

Mi verso es un ciervo herido

Que busca en el monte amparo.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

Cultivo una rosa blanca,

En julio como en enero,

Para el amigo sincero

Que me da su mano franca.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

Y para el cruel que me arranca

El corazón con que vivo,

Cardo ni ortiga cultivo,

Cultivo la rosa blanca.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

Yo sé de un pesar profundo

Entre las penas sin nombre:

La esclavitud de los hombres

Es la gran pena del mundo!

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

Con los pobres de la tierra

Quiero yo mi suerte echar.

Con los pobres de la tierra

Quiero yo mi suerte echar,

El arroyo de la sierra

Me complace más que el mar.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera.

Guantanamera

I am a truthful man,

From the land of the palm.

Before dying, I want to

Share these poems of my soul.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

My verses are light green,

But they are also flaming red.

My verses are like a wounded fawn,

Seeking refuge in the mountain.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

I cultivate a white rose

In June and in January

For the sincere friend

Who gives me his hand.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

And for the cruel one who would tear out

This heart with which I live.

I cultivate neither thistles nor nettles

I cultivate a white rose.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

I know about a fatal evil

Among the unspeakable shames:

The enslavement of human beings

Is the great shame of the world!

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

With the poor people of this earth,

I want to share my lot.

With the poor people of this earth,

I want to share my lot.

The little streams of the mountains

Please me more than the sea.

Guantanamera, guajira guantanamera

216

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Song details

Translation details

Translations made by Lobolyrix are protected by copyrights. Commercial use only with my written permission, private use free if the author is mentioned.

Lobolyrix

submitted on 2 Feb 2017 - 09:30

Author's comments:

Guantanamera > Guantánamo Province
Guajira: Female (white) peasant in Cuba as well as the Cuban music style Guajira
The original verses are written by the Cuban national hero José Martí (1853 - 1895).

Comments 12

roster 31 M

2 Feb 2017, 14:51

José Martí (El Libertador de Cuba) is the author of the poem (poems), not a performer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mart%C3%AD

Aldefina M

2 Feb 2017, 14:59

You're right, Rosa, nevertheless I think there's no need to change anything. It may look confusing, but we also translate poetry, not only songs, and he's on the list of the artists.

roster 31 M

2 Feb 2017, 15:16

Andrzej, the song has been translated a good number of times (you being one of the translations), interpreted by different artists, not by José Martí.
I don't see any problem in deleting his name as a performer.

Aldefina M

2 Feb 2017, 16:29

He is listed as an artist, not a performer: https://lyricstranslate.com/en/jos%C3%A9-mart%C3%AD-lyrics.html

That's the way how our software works, we cannot separate poets from singers - they are all listed in the same category - and I'm not sure whether that would be a good idea. I have submitted one poem of Andrzej Waligórski, as a poem. He wrote it just before his death knowing that those were his last days. I also posted a video with a song, but it was never intended to be a song (the same story with José Martí). The song was recorded few years after his death.

I think we should leave it as it is. I believe it's better this way.

roster 31 M

2 Feb 2017, 16:59

I have seen it. But whoever says the verses, is not José Martí. José Martí died in 1895.

I already edited the entry (it had mistakes), and added a comment.
All clear. No problem.

Lobolyrix A

2 Feb 2017, 17:20

Hello Rosa, for a moment I was irritated, me too, to find the well known 'Libertador de Cuba' listed as an 'artist' - never heard that he performed any songs... :). But Andrzej is right, we translate here songs as well as poems. And please note, you can find here even Miguel de Cervantes, William Shakespeare, Johann W. von Goethe and Friedrich Schiller, all them listed as 'artists...
Maybe that editors sometimes should draw a better distinction between 'artists' and 'performers', this could prevent confusions.

roster 31 M

2 Feb 2017, 19:39

That's fine.
I think the editing I did was all right.

Aldefina M

2 Feb 2017, 17:42

Exactly, Wolfgang, you're right. We may introduce same changes in the software and separate poets from singers, but this may cause new problems e.g. we should add a new field "Lyrics written by".

I don't think it is needed, because we deal mostly with songs.

Something else: I have a problem - our forum looks very strange for me and it's not possible to add a comment. Probably also the private chat stopped working, because nobody answers me and when I open a new tab the messages that I sent are not visible, so probably they weren't sent.

Aldefina M

2 Feb 2017, 17:59

Could you please check if you have the same problem?

Lobolyrix A

2 Feb 2017, 18:12

Hello Andrzej, a new field "Lyrics written by" - to me, it seems a very good idea!

As for your problem, I can't help you myself, because I didn't haunt in any forum up to the present. But I propose, you contact Hans (> Hansi K_Lauer), he has a lot of experience in this area :).

Candice Goddard

2 Feb 2021, 20:25

Isn't the description of a guajira incorrect?
It currently states: "Guajira: Female (white) peasant in Cuba as well as the Cuban music style Guajira" but how can that be accurate when the Guajiro people are Amerindians?

roster 31 M

3 Feb 2021, 03:15

In Cuba, "guajira" is a peasant.