I’m not sure if I should put it here or in Cafe Society, but I am trying to figure out what is happening in the song and my Spanish is rather poor. Here is a link to the lyrics.
If someone who has better Spanish speaking skills than I do could help me out I’d really appreciate it.
Nothing about suicide anywhere. Promise. The translation is pretty literal, it’s too early in the morning to try and make it sound good. “Ay” is something like “sigh” but, well, when a song says “ay” we don’t sigh, we say “ay.”
Little green bird, how can you tell me not to cry,
little green bird, it’s impossible for me not to cry,
ay, ay, ay, ay, only one life I have
little green bird, and they want to take it away. (that is, they want to kill me)
Little green bird, how can you tell me not to cry,
little green bird, it’s impossible for me not to cry,
ay, ay, ay, ay, the chains they take off my legs
little green bird, they just stick them back on.
Little green bird, yesterday you went to cut wood
little green bird, and you passed by my house, (strictly speaking, by my land, but it sort of gives the idea of a small plot)
ay, ay, ay, ay, and everybody heard of it
little green bird, for you keep bad company.
Little green bird, what can an indian give you
little green bird, no matter how much you want it / how much you love him,
ay, ay, ay, ay, a string of crabs (as in, freshly fished)
little green bird, and that only when it rains.
Agreed. No suicide anywhere. The lyrics don’t make a whole lot of sense as you can see from Nava’s translation which is definitely close enough for all intents and purposes.
I like that type of music a lot and have tons of it. I had never heard of that song which is odd since it has been sung by Soledad Bravo and Cecilia Todt.
Seeing that it is a traditional song with no known author, I would not be surprised if a lot of verses were missing (it is very short for the genre) that would give it some sense and meaning.