I am new to this Forum and am still trying to find my way around its corridors. I haven't been able to find a "subforum" of flamenco letras. Am I missing it?


Anyway, here is one I like (one has to be careful with flamenco letras. Some come from the 'pueblo", but many poets ahve written letras which got absorbed into the cante.I don't know the original source of this one)

TODAVIA EN MI CAMA
EL HOYITO QUE DEJO
LAS HORQUILLITAS DE SU PELO
Y EL PEINE QUE LA PEINO'


Still remaining on my bed
is the imprint of her body,
The hairpins of of her hair
And the comb with which she combed

Jacinto wrote:I am new to this Forum and am still trying to find my way around its corridors. I haven't been able to find a "subforum" of flamenco letras. Am I missing it?


Anyway, here is one I like (one has to be careful with flamenco letras. Some come from the 'pueblo", but many poets ahve written letras which got absorbed into the cante.I don't know the original source of this one)

TODAVIA EN MI CAMA
EL HOYITO QUE DEJO
LAS HORQUILLITAS DE SU PELO
Y EL PEINE QUE LA PEINO'


Still remaining on my bed
is the imprint of her body,
The hairpins of of her hair
And the comb with which she combed

Hi Jacinto,

As of yet there is no "Letras" subforum, but that's is a thought. Let's see if posters make any additional contributions.

One of my favorites:

Si tuvo una naranja
Partido contigo,
Pero no lo tengo
Y eso es mi pena.

If I had an orange
I would share it with you,
But I do not have one
And that is my pain.

Doog

Great idea! My favorites....

Juan del Gastor

Oh, Mom! I don't want this
I want something else

Fly with me and come to the moon
The moon ... the moon deceived me

I smiled at it and it spoke to me of love
Ay, the moon deceived me

If you want a blue sky come to
Seville and you shall have it

and this goes on for quite a while. If you want to hear him sing it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIM2Iqf8suc

Then my own nonsense

When I was young, I played much guitar
Now old I listen to guitar and song
I have lived flamenco backwards
Such was the foolishness of youth

I tried to manufacture flamenco
From long hours and days of practice
I listened some but my ears heard not
From the heart where flamenco lives

I tried to play like the masters
I sounded like a sick parrot
That talked without ever listening
Then young, I did not understand

Now older I live for the day
I hear weakly and distorted
I hear flamenco from the heart
I allow my hands to play freely

They are free from desires of youth
The desire to impress others
Now I play from raw emotions
Not from mechanical practice

I have lived flamenco backwards
I should have listened as a youth
Then played more as an elder
But that is all history now

Here is another favorite. I believe flamenco "stole" it from Spanish folkmusic

Zapatos blancos
debajo de la cama
No son mios, no son tuyas
De quien son estes zapatos blancos?

White shoes
under the bed
They're not my shoes
They're not your shoes
Whose shoes are they?

Here are a few more nice letras:

Hands of my watch
I ripped them out
But time didn't stop

To the king
I have written a little letter
asking him for polka dots
for your dress

Following me
a small star
Small but constant

Hola

Soleá, from my CD of Juan Silva de Cádiz. ( I translated all the letras in the accompanying booklet)

Reloj de arena es tu cuerpo
te abrazo por la cintura
para que se tenga el tiempo

Your body is an hour glass
I embrace you around the waist
so that time will stop.

Suerte

Seán

Yo voy a ti como el r¡o
que va a perderse a la mar
como la lluvia a la tierra
como el acero al imán

I go to you like the river that
goes to lose itself in the sea
like the rain to the earth
like steel to the magnet

Fernanda 1959

(Si)endo que soy tuya
siendo que soy tuya
¿Qué cadenita me has echado?
que me tienes tú tan segura

Can anyone help with a better translation?

If that I am yours and being that I am yours
What small chain have you thrown to me?
that you to me keep so safe

Yo estoy quierendo a tí
con la misma violencia
que tiene el ferrocarril

Joselero

I am in desire of you
with a violence that is the same as
that of a railroad train

(hard to give a good translation)

From Maria Solea's fandango

I dug a hole in the sand
And there buried my thoughts
Then I threw myself in
So on-one else would suffer.