Skip to main content

"how much our love meant to me"


driving to Palisades Park yesterday (saw Apples in Stereo, Page France & Headlights the night before). birds scuttled in formation along the shiny crashing waves.
-
Amalia and i translated this Ramon Ayala song. while she focused on meaning, i worked on rhyme. together, it is ready for the studio. so mr. Ayala, if you're jonesin' for a Third Coast top ten hit, we offer our translation services for a reasonable fee.
it is unanimous, Ayala's music is the best for when we dance together.
-
she kept wanting to translate "rama" as "ram." i agree with her, everyone should start using "ram" in English, instead of "branch." let's say this new vocabulary is a combination tribute to Ramon Ayala and Ramiro Ayala. (no relation. that tree blocking the door - it should've been mesquite, but i think it's a live oak.)
-

  • probably title this "the mesquite tree."
    -
    the branch of the mesquite tree
    where you were waiting for me
    ever since you left me
    has started to go dry
    leaves that once were green
    are yellow now it seems
    in solidarity
    'cuz i'm without my life
    -
    the branch of the mesquite tree
    just like me is dying
    and if you ever seek me
    you'll find me where i lie
    deep beneath the lovers' cemetary
    but there where i am buried
    my darling don't you cry
    -
    my cross will be
    the branch of the mesquite tree
    so you will see
    how much our love meant to me
    the branch of the mesquite tree
    and i will be together
    don't make yourself feel sadder
    nothing lasts forever

how does he make the music sound so joyous? just like with Bright Eyes, up to now, nunca he entendido la veracidad profunda de tal letras tan lugubres. hasta tienes doloron de corazon, parecen una broma.

aqui se pueden leer sus letras originales, en espanol. "?y las cuerdas, tambien?" no contaban con mi astucia.


  • La Rama del Mesquite
    -
    Ab
    La rama del mesquite donde tu me esperabas
    _________________________ D#7
    Desde que tu te fuiste se comenso a secar
    D#7
    Sus hojas eran verdes ahora son amarillas
    __________________________ Ab
    Parece que comprenden que yo estoy sin vida
    -
    Ab
    La rama del mesquite igual que yo se muere
    Ab7 ____________________ C#
    Amor si algun dia vuelves me vas a visitar
    ______ D#7 ________ Ab
    Al panteon de los enamorados
    ___________ D#7 _________ Ab
    Pero sobre mi tumba no vayas a llorar
    -
    Ab ____ D#7 ___________ Ab
    Mi cruz sera, la rama del mesquite
    _______D#7 ___________ Ab
    Y asi sabras, lo mucho que te quise
    Ab7 _________ C# _______D#7 _____ Ab
    La rama del mesquite y yo estaremos juntos
    ______________D#7 __________ Ab
    Mas no te pongas triste todo tiene su final

Comments

Anonymous said…
The title would be "The Branch of the Mesquite Tree" not just "The Mesquite Tree!"
3/25/2007
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

translation of the Manu Chao song "Me Llaman Calle"

this is about my translation of the Manu Chao song "Me Llaman Calle." [ video below ] i'm reasonably close to a literal translation, with changes to fit the rhythm and number of syllables per line. "baldosa" is like ladrilla (a brick to build a house) except flat like a tile. based on context, i translate it as "cobblestones." Chao also uses "maquinita," literally "little machine," but this implies a small device in english (a machine that does something, but does not move itself - such as a laminating machine, a blood-glucose meter, or an ATM) - so i use "little engine" instead, to imply movement. the one line i'm not happy with is the translation of "no me rebajo"; if i wasn't worried about rhythm, i would translate it as "it doesn't dig ruts into me." the tricky part is that this word, rut, is almost never used as a present-tense transitive verb in english. we generally use it as a noun (...
3 comments
Read more

Refugees in Europe deserve help, but refugees in U.S. deserve to "be sent back"?

--> September 4, 2015 Hillary Clinton on the refugee crisis in Southern Europe:   “Well the pictures, well the stories, we’ve been watching this terrible assault on the Syrian people now for years, are just heartbreaking. I think the entire world has to come together, it should not be just one or two countries, or not just Europe and the United States. We should do our part, as should the Europeans, but this is a broader, global crisis.   We now have um, more refugees than we’ve had, in many years, I think since the second world war. And as we’ve seen tragically, people are literally dying to escape the conflict in Syria. Uh, I think that the, the larger Middle East, I think Asia, I think everybody should step up and say we have to help these people. And I would hope that, under the aegis of the United Nations led by the Security Council, and certainly by the United States which has been such a generous nation in the past, we would begin to try to...
10 comments
Read more

Should we use a capital framework to understand culture? Applying cultural capital to communities of color

The Acceleration of Metaphorical Capital, from my published article. Copyright Kip Austin Hinton. "Social science research on communities of color has long been shaped by theories of social and cultural capital. This article is a hermeneutic reading of metaphorical capital frameworks, including community cultural wealth and funds of knowledge. Financial capital, the basis of these frameworks, is premised on unequal exchange. Money only becomes capital when it is not spent, but is instead invested, manipulated, and exploited. Metaphorical capitals have been criticized as imprecise, falsely quantitative, and inequitable. Some research assumes that, rather than reinforcing economic class, metaphorical capital somehow nullifies class or replaces economic capital. Yet marginalized students, by definition, have been excluded by dominant culture. Compared to low socioeconomic status (SES) students of color, high SES students have a wealth of capital, in all forms. Metaphorical ca...
2 comments
Read more