I?m having trouble translating the song ?Regresa A Mi?, a Spanish song
that is included in the ?Il Divo? CD.  I do not speak or understand
Spanish, nor am I a student.

Actually, I?m having trouble with only three (3) lines, identified in
?UPPER CASE? below:
    Borra el dolor que al irte me dio cuando te separaste de mi
        Erase the grief that ?AL IRTE? gave me when you separated from me
    Quiero que vengas a mi y me vuelvas a querer
        I want that you come to me and ?ME VUELVAS A QUERER?
    No puedo mas si tu no estas tienes que llegar
        Not can I more if ?TU NO ESTAS TIENES QUE LLEGAR?

I found the Spanish lyrics in the liner notes of the CD. (I assume
those lyrics to be without error.)

I found an English translation on the Web, but it was a ?free? (or
liberal) translation.  I prefer ?literal?.


Would you please do TWO things:
(1) Finish the translation of the above-mentioned three lines.
(2) Review my entire translation below, and correct it where needed.
Thank you!


No me abandones así
    Don?t abandon me like this
Hablando solo de ti
    Speaking only of you
Ven y devuélveme al fin la sonrisa que se fué
    Come and give back to me at last the smile that went away 

Una vez mas tocar tu piel y hondo suspirar    
    One time more to touch your skin and deep to sigh
Recuperemos lo que se ha perdido 
    We recover that which has been lost 

Regresa a mi
    Return to me
Quiereme otra vez
    Want me another time
Borra el dolor que al irte me dio cuando te separaste de mi
    Erase the grief that ?AL IRTE? gave me when you separated from me
Dime que sí
    Tell me how so
Yo no quiero llorar
    I don?t want to cry
Regresa a mi
    Return to me 

Extraño el amor que se fué
    Strange the love that went away
Extraño la dicha también
    Strange the happiness as well
Quiero que vengas a mi y me vuelvas a querer
    I want that you come to me and ?ME VUELVAS A QUERER?

No puedo mas si tu no estas tienes que llegar
    Not can I more if ?TU NO ESTAS TIENES QUE LLEGAR?
Mi vida se apaga sin ti a mi lado
    My life turns itself off without you at my side

Hello!
Let's first see the lines you're having trouble with:

"Borra el dolor que al irte me dio cuando te separaste de mí

Here "al irte" means "when you left". Now, "cuando te separaste de mí"
has a very similar meaning: "when you parted from me". So a correct
English translation could be:

"Erase the grief I experienced when you left, when you parted from me"

The next line you're having trouble with is:
"Quiero que vengas a mí y me vuelvas a querer"

The translation is:
"I want you to come to me and love me again"

Finally:
"No puedo más si tú no estás tienes que llegar"

Here, "no puedo más si tú no estás" means "I can't go on if you're not
here", and "tienes que llegar" means "you have to arrive/come". The
expression "you have to arrive" has the connotation "I need you to
arrive". So this line could be translated as:

"I can't go on if you're not here; you have to arrive".

So here's a complete translation of the full song. Some of the
expressions I've written don't make much sense in English (such as "my
life turns off" at the end of the song, where "my life fades" would
make more sense but is not what the Spanish lyrics say); I tried to
make the translation as literal as possible, while making it
understandable in English.

No me abandones así
    Don?t leave me like this
Hablando sólo de ti
    Speaking only of you
Ven y devuélveme al fin la sonrisa que se fue
    Come and give the smile that went away back to me

Una vez mas tocar tu piel y hondo suspirar    
    One more time to touch your skin and deep to sigh
Recuperemos lo que se ha perdido 
    Let's recover what has been lost 

Regresa a mi
    Return to me
Quiereme otra vez
    Love me once again
Borra el dolor que al irte me dio cuando te separaste de mi
    Erase the grief I experienced when you left, when you parted from me
Dime que sí
    Tell me yes
Yo no quiero llorar
    I don?t want to cry
Regresa a mi
    Return to me 

Extraño el amor que se fué
    I miss the love that went away
Extraño la dicha también
    I miss the happiness as well
Quiero que vengas a mi y me vuelvas a querer
    I want you to come to me and love me again

No puedo mas si tu no estas tienes que llegar
    I can't go on if you're not here; you have to arrive
Mi vida se apaga sin ti a mi lado
    My life turns off without you by my side


Finally, bear in mind that this song is already a (very liberal)
translation into Spanish of Toni Braxton's "Unbreak my heart". Here
are the lyrics to this song:

Unbreak my Heart
http://www.geocities.com/bestlyr_x/lyrics/unbreakmyheart.html


I hope this helps! If you have any doubt regarding my answer, please
don't hesitate to request clarification before rating it. Otherwise, I
await your rating and final comments.

Best wishes!
elmarto

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Request for Answer Clarification by rambler-ga on 27 Dec 2005 11:47 PST

Thank you so much for such a fast answer!

I do need some clarification (if you can tolerate my ignorance):

(1) It looks like Spanish verbs sometimes have an object pronoun as a
suffix. Is that true?  For example, devuélveme, quiereme, irte, dime,
etc.

(2) ?al irte? really puzzles me. You say it means ?when you left?. Is
that a liberal translation? To me, it looks like it translates
(literally) as ?to the to-go-you?. Can you help me understand this
phrase?

(3) If ?dime que sí? means ?tell me yes?, then why is the word ?que?
used? Would ?dime sí? not be acceptable?

(4) ?y me vuelvas a querer?: would an acceptable literal translation
of this be ?and to me you return to want??

(5) And finally, was this originally an English-language song
(?Unbreak My Heart?), followed later by a Spanish version (?Regresa A
Mi?)? (For some reason, I had assumed that it was the other way
around.)

---

Clarification of Answer by elmarto-ga on 27 Dec 2005 13:49 PST

Hi rambler!
I'm glad you liked my answer. As for the clarification request:

1) Yes, it is true. As in the examples you mentioned, it is used a lot
in the imperative conjugation:

Devuelve esto = Give this back
Devuélveme esto = Give this back to me
Devuélvenos esto = Give this back to us

2) It's actually a pretty literal translation. The word "al" (which is
a contraction of 'a' + 'el') can be used to say that something happens
as a consequence of an action:

"Al rechazar esta oferta, pierdes una gran oportunidad" can be translated as:

- By rejecting this offer, you're missing a great opportunity

- If you reject this offer, you're missing (a correct English
translation should say "you will miss" instead of "you're missing") a
great opportunity

Also, in an adequate context the translation is similar to the second
one, but with "when" instead of "if":

"Al rechazar esa oferta, perdiste (you missed) una gran oportunidad" is:

- When you rejected that offer, you missed a great opportunity

"Al irte, dejaste mi casa hecha un lío" is:

- When you left, you left my house a mess

It can be confusing because the form is the same irrespectively of
whether the first action has already happened, is happening right now,
or will/could happen in the future.

3) The word "que" is used with the verb "decir" (to say, to tell; here
conjugated as "di") in the indirect form, to refer to something
someone else says:

"Me dijo que viajará en auto" is:

- He told me he will travel by car

as opposed to "Me dijo: 'Viajaré en auto'" (notice there is no "que") which is:

- "I will travel by car", he told me.

So "dime sí" is not valid, but "dime 'sí'" is.

4) No, the translation you mention is not literal. The phrase "Quiero
que me vuelvas a querer" is written in the subjunctive form, which is
the form that is used with the verb "querer" (to want, here conjugated
as "quiero"). The form is:

(Querer properly conjugated) + que + (pronoun) + verb in subjuctive form + ...

Quiero que vayas al mercado = I want you to go to the market

Queremos que él lave los platos y que ella ayude = We want him to wash
the dishes and her to help.

5) Yes, the original song is "Unbreak my heart" by Toni Braxton. The
album in which it first appeared is called "Secrets", and was released
in 1996.


I hope this helps! If you have any further doubts regarding the
translation of the song, please request further clarification.

Best regards,
elmarto

Very fast and helpful answer!