Si No Me Amas If you don t love me About: This is the very first song I used to try to learn Spanish way back in 2008. It s not the easiest song in the world to understand, but I consider it a true classic and it s super catchy. www.grittyspanish.com Español Coro Hey! Hey!, Hey! Hey! Mejor prefiero, hey Y conocer otra mujer Aunque yo sepa que en mi vida Que me acompañe solo una noche Y que de amor que me de un derroche Al otro día al amanecer Olvide el olor de su piel Y conocer otra mujer Pa que conmigo me acompañe (Something was said here but not understandable) Y ver con ella que bien lo hace Para olvidar esa mujer Que a mí me dejó enloquecer Y conocer a otra mujer Que me acompañe en mi camino Inglés Chorus, Hey! Why you call me?, Hey! Why you call me? Even though I know that in my life She will be with me just one night And give me loads of love The next day at dawn To forget the smell of her skin to be with me And to see how good she is To forget that woman That made me to go crazy To join me on my way
Y que me lleve de una mano Para contarle todas mis penas No importa que sea rubia, India, blanca o morena Coro, Hey! Hey!, Hey! Hey!, Hey! Hey!, Hey! Hey! Y conocer a otra mujer Aunque me quiera por interés Aunque ella sepa que yo le doy Pa l salón y pa'l pantalón Aunque ella sepa que yo la quiero Por una noche y nada más Y conocer a otra mujer Que sea pura y que no haga guangá Que no me vaya pa onde la vieja Y que me quiera soltar una oreja Que tenga un pelo de la cabeza Un velón y una cerveza Coro, hey Hey! And that leads me by one hand To tell her all my sorrows I don t care if she is blond, Indian, white or brunette Chorus, hey!, hey! Hey!?, hey!?, hey! I rather to be, hey Even if she wants to be with my because of my Money/even if she is a gold digger Even if she knows that I provide For the/her (beauty) salon and for the pants (salon, here means dance salon?) Even if she knows that I want her For one night and nothing else/more That is pure and does not do guanguá **see explanation at the end** **see explanation at the end** That has a hair on her head a velón and a beer Chorus, hey, hey!
, hey Hey! (Random words and phrases from the band) Acarícialo El que está adelante Dilo tú El fuerte Mambo violento Acabó con todo, hey Why do you call me, hey! (Random words and phrases from the band) Stroke it The one that is at the front You say it the strong one violent mambo He took care of everything Y el Manny? A dónde está? And Manny? Where is he? Tú no puedes conmigo You can t take me Beto y Juan Beto and Juan Ya pasamos del millón We went over the million Pero de dolores but (a million) aches Acabó con todo Dile que no, dile que no, dile que no No te cruces Que te va a salir una hernia Lo mató Pa' qué me tira pa' tra? Traviesa Ya He took care of everything Say no, say no, say no Don't Cross That you will get a hernia He killed him If you don t love me Why do you hold me back? Trouble maker That s it Notes: de un derroche: This means, lots of love, Loads of love. Any phrase that conveys the idea of abundance of love would work here. There is not a literal translation for this, but: Derroche comes from the verb, derrochar. While in some contexts it means to squander, to throw away money, in other contexts also means abundance/profusion. One of the definitions of the Spanish Royal Academy defines derroche as To use (or give) something excessively, such as courage, energy, humor. It is very common to say something like: Estoy derrochando alegría, which would mean. I am extremely happy. Or if you see a couple that is derrochando amor, it means it is obvious they are in love.
por interés: When you say por interés (in romantic contexts) it means that you are with someone, not because of the person, but because of something that the person has. (Usually, but not always, money). For example, it could be to get married to stay in a country, or because that person has access to the right contacts). So it is very common to say: Ella se casó con él por interés (She got married with him because she is a gold digger). pa'l pantalón: In here salon is beauty salon (salón de belleza) and pantalón is pants ; pants being an analogy for clothing in general. Meaning that he is willing to pay for everything (salon covers cosmetic and beauty supplies; and pants covers clothing and shoes, I suppose); as long as he gets what he wants.(to forget the other woman, sex, etc.). I was told that in Mexico, some beggars say: me puede dar una moneda pa l taco?) (can you give me a coin to get some food?), this doesn t necessarily mean that they will literally need to buy tacos, just that they want something to eat. In NYC, we get that a lot too, beggers asking for money to buy a cheeseburger. It s funny, because when you test them, and say something like, Lets go to that burger joint over there, I ll buy you a burger, most will make all kind of excuses and say something like, I am a vegatarian or somesome like that. Just like The Vagrant Episode in Gritty Spanish Original. Guangá: Never heard this word before, but after doing some research, I found out that in the Dominican Republic, guangá (also spelled wanga, or ouanga in other areas) is basically a voodoo practice, including but not limited to spells. pa onde la vieja / Soltar una oreja: I had to be on some extra Kojack shhhhh with these two phrases here. Why? Because my super native speaking Mexican translator I ve been using since Gritty Spanish Parte II didn t understand those phrases and based on other translations of the song online, they didn t know what it meant either. We originally both thought the phrases were the following: Que no me vaya a poner la vieja Y que me quiera cortar una oreja She came to the conclusion that it was just a rhyme, because in Reggeton especially, they would say a phrase combination that will not make much sense to anybody else. We here this in some of our music as well, especially in Hip-hop, Dancehall reggae and soca music I was just going to leave it at that, but I had the urge to dig a bit more for some reason. I first reached out to my Dominican buddy who currently lives in Santo Domingo. He was able to give me a definition that made sense for the first phrase: He gave me a different translation for the first line: pa'onde la vieja: He told me, "irse a donde la vieja" means going to your mom. Like, when a couple lives together, and they they have a big fight, usually one of them leaves the house and go to their parents house.
He also changed, Cortar una oreja to the following. Soltar una oreja: The same dude was not able to tell me what s the meaning of Soltar una oreja, which litterally means, to release an ear. He said, It s not a rhyme, it definitely means something I just don t know what it means. Now, this is the same guy that helped me, Dominicanize many of the scenes in Gritty Spanish Parte II and also voiced many Dominican voice scenes for me in Parte II telling me this! And you hear how authentic his dominican accent is in those episodes (if you purchased & heard Gritty II of course ). So this is another reason why you should never feel bad and lose hope when you don t understand something. So I decided to fireup my WhatApp and say hello to another friend from DR and ask her about the line. This is how some of the convo went after sending her the line and 0.4 seconds of the song, yes 4 seconds. So she laughs, and says, I sing it so much, and I hadn t noticed that small part. As I said in Gritty Spanish Parte II, Dominicanos LOVE using the word Chin when talking about small quantities of stuff, and here you see the girl using it in a real text conversation. Here, she is telling me that, Soltar is a saying(un decir), which also means, Dejar, which would also make the line, Dejar una oreja. I also learned that a saying can be un refrán in another song. So I then asked her, but what does Dejar una oreja mean? Jajaja, she laughs and basically says, I wouldn t be able explain it to you, those are Dominican words, street vocabulary
See the look I give after her response? Then I ask if Dejar una oreja is like cheating on someone? I don t know where the heck I got that one from ha-ha-ha, but got to keep the dialogue going. Finally, she tells me what it means in the streets of DR or maybe certain parts of the DR She said, Its like, I wish to know about you in every respect. *whipes sweat off my forehead* I then reached out both the Mexican Translator and my Domincan voice actor and asked if, Dejar una oreja has a real meaning outside of the DR, they both responded, Not that they know off. So I am not even sure, why my Whatsapp friend even mentioned Dejar una oreja if he said, Soltar una oreja. It could be that when you "sueltas" (release) someone s ear, you also "la dejas de agarrar" (stop holding it)... "dejar" can have several meanings, including "stop", "let go" "leave" Later on she told me that she knew Omega before he started singing, he used to live in her neighbood in a town called, Pantoja, close to the capital. Now these phrases, you may never use, and you may even forget all about it, but little by little you ll just subsconciously get better all around in Spanish when you show some kind of interest. Sigh, I can t believe I wrote all that, but enjoyed telling the story and figured you d enjoy it. Anything for my Gritty Learners On to the next pelo de la cabeza: My super Mexican translator said the following, I am not sure why he would want her to have this item (or a hair on her head), but that is exactly what he is saying) The next morning, I asked the same Dominican girl about that line, in the following WhatsApp message:
I ll just left it at that and took it literally to mean, he wants that she have hair on her head/not be a bald headed woman. Velón: Velón is a metal lamp, for common oil. It can also be a thick hallow candle, which are very common in some churches. It is not slang for anything. Different spellings include(belón, vellón, bellón, but all of this are non-existing words) tira pa' tra: Depending on the context, tirar para atrás can mean: 1) Hold back 2) Be pessimistic 3) Something that is unpleasant You can also say echar para atrás, which has the following additional meanings: 4) Move backwards 5) To change your mind Traviesa: In the right context, traviesa / travieso is slang for troublemaker www.grittyspanish.com