~ MORE ON TRANSLATIONS ~

At this point I would like to bring up the subject of verb tenses and poetic license. It is important to not look at a translated song and use it to try to learn your verb tenses! There is more than one reason for that. You see, in circumstances that are built on fact, EXACT verb tense is a must as I may want to say to you that "I will have the check next Friday" and it would be really awkward to say, "I am having the check next Friday." BUT, I could easily say, "I will have a party next week ~or~ I am having a party next week!

In the song "Nada es Igual," there is a lot going on with the use of the verb tenses. With songs and with poetry, you are dealing with emotional feelings and it is ALL IMPORTANT that the flow of the words creates a beautiful sound to your ears. Naturally, you would be very wrong to trade in a line that is written in past tense, and exchange it for the future tense! However, there are several tenses that overlap, and when you say a line in each tense, they create the exact same picture in your head. So, you must keep in mind that when writing the poem or song, the way they are choosing the tense they are going to use, (only in the case of overlapping verb tense meanings) is not because it more exactly says what they want to say, so much as that that particular form has just the right amount of syllables and/or rhymes with another part - IT IS LYRICAL. Here is a good example of that:

Yo aquí esperaré por ti = I am here. I will wait for you. Which is fine. But, can you see the same picture by saying the words:
"I'm here, waiting for you" ??? One difference in the way this is worded, is that the thought doesn't stop in the middle, but continues to flow. It is just as important to keep that lyrical flow of the words in English as it was in Spanish. If you translate a poem or song and lose the beauty in the way the words compliment one another, then you shouldn't have translated it, because songs and poems are about beauty, emotion, feeling and not to be confused with a study in exact verb tenses. More importantly, another subtle difference between "I will wait for you" and "I am waiting for you" exist. In English "I will," most usually indicates that I am not doing something now, but will start later! The use of the progressive present tense "I am waiting for you" indicates he is waiting now and will keep on waiting until she comes back, and that is what he really means here. This, again, has to do with the difference in languages. In Spanish, the present progressive tense is restricted to mean what I am doing EXACTLY at this moment, and does not extend to include the future. So, we must adjust to fit the way we word ourselves, in English, when we translate.

There is also the fact that, different languages just plain ole' word themselves differently. The important thing is to cut through the maze of words that are there and get to the meaning of what is being said. Here is an example of that:

Duérmete aquí, sueña por mí = You sleep here, dream for me Well, I am just SURE that his thought was not "you sleep here, and I will go down the hall and sleep there!" With the words, "sleep here" - he is implying WHERE he wants her to sleep, which is "here, beside me." So, my translation will bring out the meaning those words were meant to convey:

Sleep next to me, dream for/with me A good translation should translate more than the words, it must translate the meaning of what is being conveyed.

Now if you were in court translating for a witness, you would be talking about FACTS and EXACT actions and times. There would be no room for poetic license whatsoever. Do you see the difference?

I did think it was important to make sure everyone realizes that there is much going on with the way verbs are chosen in works of beauty, and often in the same song, you will find the overlapping tenses running back and forth, only because they are using the poetic license of having the song stay lyrical. In english I don't have to worry about the rhyming, as their choice in Spanish is not going to rhyme, once translated, anyway.

Lastly, because I know that people will be curious, I would like to mention the subject of the first line in Nada es Igual - "sueña por mí." My first impression was that he was saying "that would be a dream for him." But the noun representing a dream would be "sueño." The ending of a noun never changes like adjectives or verbs do. The word used here is "sueña," which is a conjugated form of the verb "soñar/to dream." Now there is a phenomonen where people know what they mean but say something else. Like we say, "I could care less, when we really mean that we could NOT care less! Could this be an accepted misuse of this word? Or could they have been reaching for the word "sueño" when this song was written, and grabbed the wrong one? No way I can tell you that one! I can only tell you what word they actually grabbed and the "proper" usage for it! But... I really do think this is exactly what they meant. I mean, he realizes that if he is dreaming by himself, it won't be enough, so he is asking her to dream "for" him. He NEEDS her to dream for him/with him, so it will come true! - Sandra/Sandy

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