Canción del Mes : Song of the Month – Ciega, Sordomuda de Shakira

Escucando a música es una buena manera a aprender un idioma y tengo suerte porque ya sé muchas artistas que hacen buena música en español. En mi primer cuarto de español en la universidad, mi maestro nos introdució a Shakira. En eso tiempo, la cantante no era en quien pensamos hoy (este era antes-Caderas No Mienten) y su música era completamente diferente. Ciega Sordomuda es una de las canciónes la que escuchamos. Para practicar mi español, trabajaré a través de las letras abajo.

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Listening to music is good way to learn a language and I’m lucky because I already know many artists that make good music in Spanish. In my first quarter of Spanish in college, my teacher introduced us to Shakira. At that time, the singer was not who we think of now (this was pre-“Hips Don’t Lie”) and her music was completely different. “Ciega Sordomuda” was the first song we listened to. To practice my Spanish, I’ll work through the lyrics below.

Ciega, Sordomuda

Blind, Deaf, & Dumb

se me acaba el argumento
y la metodología
cada vez que se aparece frente a mí
tu anatomia

Acabar means to finish, to use up, and the se is reflexive, so the first two lines would be “My argument and methodology finishes itself.” Cada vez is “every time,” se aparace is “it appears,” with the “it” referring to tu anatomia, and frente a mi being “in front of me,” making the next two lines, “Every time your anatomy appears in front of me.” So, our first four lines mean something along the lines of, “Every time your anatomy appears in front of me, every argument ends itself.”

por que este amor ya no entiende
de consejos, ni razones
se alimenta de pretextos
y le faltan pantalones

Our first two lines are “Because this love doesn’t understand advice or reason.” Alimentarse means to feed or live on and pretextos is, as you might guess, pretexts or, more aptly, excuses, so our next two lines are, “It feeds on excuses and it’s lacking pants.” All together we get, “Because this love doesn’t understand advice or reason, it feeds on excuses and it’s lacking pants.” If you had any doubt as to the propriety of Shakira’s use of the word anatomia above, now you have your answer.

este amor no me permite
estar en pie
porque ya hasta me há quebrado
los talones 
 

Here we have “This love doesn’t permit me to be on foot.” In our third line we have ha quebrado, which means “has broken.” Los talones is “heels,” so put together we get “This love doesn’t permit me to stand on my own two feet because it has already broken my heels.”

y aunque me levante volveré a caer
si te acercas nada es útil
para esta inútil

The first line here is “And although I pick myself up, I return to fall (or fall back down).” Acercarse is to come closer and útil is useful, which makes inútil useless, so our next two lines are “If you come closer nothing is useful, for this useless [thing is implied].” So, in all, we have “And although I pick myself back up, I fall back down. Nothing is useful if you come closer, for this useless person/being/thing.”

coro/chorus:

bruta, ciega, sordomuda,
torpe, traste, testaruda,
es todo lo que he sido
por ti me he convertido
en una cosa que no hace
otra cosa más que amarte
pienso en ti día y noche
y no se como olvidarte

Stupid, blind, deaf, and dumb

Dim, ruined, stubborn,

Is all I’ve been,

For you I’ve changed myself,

Into something that does nothing,

Another thing that loves you more,

I think about you day and night,

And I don’t know how to forget you.

cuántas veces he intentado
enterrarte en mi memoria
y aunque diga ya no más
es otra vez la misma historia

Enterrarte means “to bury you,” so the first two lines are, “How many times have I tried to bury you in my memory.” And next is, “Although I say ‘no more’ already, it’s the same story all over again.”

porque este amor siempre sabe
hacerme respirar profundo
ya me trae por la izquierda
y de pelea con el mundo

Our first two lines are, “Because this love always knows to make me breathe deeply.” Then we have, “It brings me to the left and in a fight with the world.”

si pudiera exorcizarme de tu voz
si pudiera escaparme de tu nombre
si pudiera arrancarme el corazón
y esconderme para no sentirme nuevamente

Si pudiera – hello imperfect subjunctive! As I’ve said before, the subjunctive is notoriously difficult for English speakers to understand, but here it’s really quite simple.

First line: “If could exorcise myself from your voice,”

Second line: “If I could escape from your name,”

Third line: “If I could rip out my heart,”

Last line: “And hide myself, to feel nothing, anew.”

All the subjunctive is expressing here is the possibility of something occurring. That’s not so scary, is it? (This is what I’m telling myself.)

coro/chorus

ojerosa, flaca, fea, desgreñada,
torpe, tonta, lenta, necia, desquiciada,
completamente descontrolada

tu te das cuenta y no me dices nada

Haggard, skinny, ugly, disheveled,

Dim, stupid, slow, foolish, deranged,

Completely uncontrollable,

You realize it and you don’t tell me anything.

ves que se me há vuelto
la cabeza un nido
donde solamente tu tienes asilo
y no me escuchas lo que te digo
mira bien lo que vas a hacer conmigo

You see it has changed

My head into a nest

Where only you have asylum

And you don’t hear what I tell you

Look well at what you’re going to do with me.

coro/chorus