[English translations in the footnotes]
Que se arruinen los canales de noticias[1]Roughly, “May all the news channels be ruined.” This song was recorded just before 9/11 in early 2001, by the way, and was still getting regular radio play (including the restaurants and … Continue reading
Con lo mucho que odio la televisión[2]“As much as I hate the TV anyways.” This was a more provocative statement to make in 2001, I assure you; the looming advent of smartphones and social media which none of us could foresee … Continue reading
Que se vuelvan anticuadas las sonrisas[3]“May smiles go out of fashion.”–literally, “return antiquated.” In eras of terrorism, wars and rumors of wars, erosions of civil liberties and “spiritual … Continue reading
Y se extingan todas las puestas de sol[4]“And extinguish all sunsets.” I was living in the northeast a few years ago when the Canadian wildfire smoke blocked out the sky entirely; heck, I’ve also lived in Utah when the … Continue reading
Que se supriman las doctrinas y deberes[5]“May they suppress all doctrines and duties.” In the days before the Great Flood, Enoch walked with God, and was shocked to find the Almighty Creator of the Universe weeping, … Continue reading
Que se terminen las películas de acción[6]“May they end all action movies.” Action movies are just Hollywood fantasies after all; part of what made 9/11 so traumatizing and shocking is that it was a disaster movie come to life, … Continue reading
Que se destruyan en el mundo los placeres[7]“May they destroy all worldly pleasures.” Or is it better rendered, “May they destroy all pleasures in the world”? A key distinction between the Latter-day Saints and the … Continue reading
Y que se escriba hoy una última canción[8]“And may they write today one last song.” Is the Song of Redeeming Love (Alma 5:26) the last song to be written? Are these the Last Days, or aren’t they?
Pero que me quedes tú y me quede tu abrazo[9]“But may I be left you, and your embrace.” Another good example of how a love song can also be a religious song–how the embrace of the lover can be metonymic for the embrace of the … Continue reading
Y el beso que inventas cada día[10]“And the kiss you invent daily.” Eternity is not a static persistence, but infinite diversity and variation. There really will be new kisses invented daily. Indeed, what other eternity is … Continue reading
Y que me quede aquí, después del ocaso[11]“And may I be left here, after the sunset.” Symbolic for the end of the world–which also presages the New Heavens and the New Earth–just as the sunset always presages the … Continue reading
Para siempre tu melancolía[12]“For always your melancholy.” If God Almighty can still weep (as we read above), such seems to indicate that even in eternity and exaltation we will still have our melancholy. So rather … Continue reading
Porque yo, yo lo sé, sí, que dependo de ti[13]“Because I, I know it, yes, that I depend on you.” An example of romantic feeling also doubling as a religious feeling—for they are both derived from love.
Si me quedas tú, me queda la vida[14]“If I’m left with you, I’m left with life.” Ditto as above.
Que desaparezcan todos los vecinos[15]“May all of our neighbors disappear.” Both in the sense of everyone we used to know moving away, which is melancholy enough, but also in the sense that we lose our neighbors, because the … Continue reading
Y se coman las sobras de mi inocencia[16]“And eat the leftovers of my innocence.” One of the many paradoxes of the Gospel is that we must Fall to be saved; that we must sin to be redeemed; that me must lose our innocence to get … Continue reading
Que se vayan uno a uno los amigos[17]“May each of my friends disappear one by one.” A common experience growing up, and that only accelerates the older you get; hence the great need to hold on to those friends you do have … Continue reading
Y acribillen mi pedazo de consciencia[18]“And shoot and kill my last piece of conscience.” See note above about the loss of innocence; same commentary applies.
Que se consuman las palabras en los labios[19]“May all words be consumed on the lips.” For it is never the words themselves that persuade us, but the thing beyond words, the groanings beyond utterance, the peace of God which … Continue reading
Que contaminen todo el agua del planeta[20]“May they contaminate all the water of the planet.” Something else that is also quite literally happening, not as metaphor; we will be held accountable for our collective failure to be … Continue reading
O que renuncien los filántropos y sabios[21]“Or may they renounce the philanthropists and the wise.” In our era of gross anti-intellectualism and performative cruelty, we truly have renounced the philanthropists and wise. Again, … Continue reading
Y que se muera hoy hasta el último poeta[22]“And may the last poet die today.” Given the marginal state of poetry today in our broader Pop culture, this has arguably already happened; for if nobody reads a poem, did it really get … Continue reading
Pero que me quedes[23]Important to emphasize that this word in the chorus is in the subjunctive form; she’s not saying “Quedas,” that you will be left with me, but “Quedes,” hopefully you … Continue reading tú y me quede tu abrazo
Y el beso que inventas cada día
Y que me quede aquí, después del ocaso
Para siempre tu melancolía
Porque yo, yo lo sé, sí, que dependo de ti
Si me quedas tú, me queda la vida
Pero que me quedes tú y me quede tu abrazo
Y el beso que inventas cada día
Y que me quede aquí, después del ocaso
Para siempre tu melancolía
Porque yo, yo lo sé, sí, que dependo de ti
Si me quedas tú, me queda la vida
References
| ↑1 | Roughly, “May all the news channels be ruined.” This song was recorded just before 9/11 in early 2001, by the way, and was still getting regular radio play (including the restaurants and the grocery stores) when I was serving my mission in Latin America, during the Iraq invasion–which the U.S. news media, you will recall, had mostly beaten the war-drum for relentlessly, only actively questioning its rationale and its wisdom after it was already far too late—which you will note defeats the whole point of having news channels in the first place. So the news channels really were ruined; this Latin Pop song turned out to be prophetic. |
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| ↑2 | “As much as I hate the TV anyways.” This was a more provocative statement to make in 2001, I assure you; the looming advent of smartphones and social media which none of us could foresee even then would soon make us all yearn for the days when we actually sat down patiently and watched an entire television program from beginning to end, rather than constantly doom-scroll through a constant stream of ephemera and slop. The news channels were ruined, but were replaced with something even worse. Hence, why she is right to still foresee the end of broadcast news as something to be mourned, no matter how much she still hates it. But then, is it not in our baptismal covenants to “mourn with those that mourn”? |
| ↑3 | “May smiles go out of fashion.”–literally, “return antiquated.” In eras of terrorism, wars and rumors of wars, erosions of civil liberties and “spiritual wickedness in high places” (Ephesians 6:12)–both in the early-2000s as it is again today–smiling can feel like an insipid mockery of reality. (Certainly I better understand nowadays why, say, so many eastern Europeans who survived the Cold War never seem to smile.) I’ve long had the impression that Mormon and Moroni never smiled; as Hugh Nibley once noted, there is no humor in the Book of Mormon. |
| ↑4 | “And extinguish all sunsets.” I was living in the northeast a few years ago when the Canadian wildfire smoke blocked out the sky entirely; heck, I’ve also lived in Utah when the California wildfire smoke had me violating the Word of Wisdom prohibition against smoking just by going outside. The era of extinguished sunsets is already upon us, and that not as a poetic metaphor. We have been poor stewards of the Earth entrusted to us indeed. |
| ↑5 | “May they suppress all doctrines and duties.” In the days before the Great Flood, Enoch walked with God, and was shocked to find the Almighty Creator of the Universe weeping, exclaiming:
“How is it that thou canst weep, seeing thou art holy, and from all eternity to all eternity? And were it possible that man could number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would not be a beginning to the number of thy creations; and thy curtains are stretched out still; and yet thou art there, and thy bosom is there; and also thou art just; thou art merciful and kind forever; And thou hast taken Zion to thine own bosom, from all thy creations, from all eternity to all eternity; and naught but peace, justice, and truth is the habitation of thy throne; and mercy shall go before thy face and have no end; how is it thou canst weep?” (Moses 7:29-31). To which God the Father responds simply: “unto thy brethren have I said, and also given commandment, that they should love one another, and that they should choose me, their Father; but behold, they are without affection, and they hate their own blood” (Moses 7:33). That is, our whole doctrine and our duty (as Christ also emphasized in the Two Great Commandments) is to love one another, and choose God as our father. When we fail to love one another, when we behave with viciousness and cruelty towards others, then we truly have suppressed all true doctrines and duties. |
| ↑6 | “May they end all action movies.” Action movies are just Hollywood fantasies after all; part of what made 9/11 so traumatizing and shocking is that it was a disaster movie come to life, where it was no longer exciting, but horrifying. The action genre had been de-troped by reality.
Or at least I wish it had been; because large swaths of America then promptly acted like they were still in an action movie, and rallied round the invasion of Iraq as though George W. Bush (who even cosplayed as a Navy pilot for that “Mission Accomplished” fiasco) was an action hero riding in to blow up bad-guys and save the day. The result, predictably, was a real life reign of blood and horror upon this earth–to the point that even today the president is still championed by his supporters as some sort of action hero for, say, bombing foreign countries without reason, bullying allies to steal their land, kidnapping immigrants and children, and killing nonviolent protestors in the streets without provocation. That is, some days I really, really wish that the action movies had ended after all. This song yearns for the same. |
| ↑7 | “May they destroy all worldly pleasures.” Or is it better rendered, “May they destroy all pleasures in the world”? A key distinction between the Latter-day Saints and the aesthetic tradition of “historical” Christianity is our rejection of Neo–Platonism that associated everything material and physical with the degraded and inherently sinful. By contrast, we believe God is a Human Being–glorified and exalted beyond all description, yes, but still a physically embodied entity–and that our bodies are not something to be cast off or transcended, but embraced, respected, resurrected, and essential towards our eventual exaltation as well.
In this paradigm, worldly pleasures are only a sin if they become an object of worship in and of themselves, a false god; but if they are simply enjoyed for their own sake, with all due gratitude to God who has granted us the gift of a physical body and a mortal experience, then a “worldly pleasure” can even be something sanctifying. That is, destroying all worldly pleasures is a sign of apostasy, not holiness. Not that we are alone in intuiting this. Latin Americans, despite (or maybe even because of?) their heavily Catholic upbringing, I dare say have a much more healthy relationship with and respect for their physical bodies than many North Americans. It is a model we could definitely stand to learn from. |
| ↑8 | “And may they write today one last song.” Is the Song of Redeeming Love (Alma 5:26) the last song to be written? Are these the Last Days, or aren’t they? |
| ↑9 | “But may I be left you, and your embrace.” Another good example of how a love song can also be a religious song–how the embrace of the lover can be metonymic for the embrace of the Lord–and the literal final step of the Temple Endowment ceremony is the symbolic embrace with God at the veil. |
| ↑10 | “And the kiss you invent daily.” Eternity is not a static persistence, but infinite diversity and variation. There really will be new kisses invented daily. Indeed, what other eternity is worth enduring? Is not eternity without change the definition of hell itself? |
| ↑11 | “And may I be left here, after the sunset.” Symbolic for the end of the world–which also presages the New Heavens and the New Earth–just as the sunset always presages the sunrise, for as the Savior taught, all things must pass way. |
| ↑12 | “For always your melancholy.” If God Almighty can still weep (as we read above), such seems to indicate that even in eternity and exaltation we will still have our melancholy. So rather than repress our sadness (as we all too often try to do in LDS culture, often mistaking depression for sin, as antithetical to the “Great Plan of Happiness”), we should instead treat it as something sacred, as well. |
| ↑13 | “Because I, I know it, yes, that I depend on you.” An example of romantic feeling also doubling as a religious feeling—for they are both derived from love. |
| ↑14 | “If I’m left with you, I’m left with life.” Ditto as above. |
| ↑15 | “May all of our neighbors disappear.” Both in the sense of everyone we used to know moving away, which is melancholy enough, but also in the sense that we lose our neighbors, because the “love of many shall wax cold” (Matt. 24:12) in these latter days, “But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” |
| ↑16 | “And eat the leftovers of my innocence.” One of the many paradoxes of the Gospel is that we must Fall to be saved; that we must sin to be redeemed; that me must lose our innocence to get it back; that we must acknolwedge we have lost our innocence, and stop insisting upon our personal righteousness, if we have any hope of repenting and being redeemed. As Joseph Smith said of the 99 sheep, “They are too righteous to repent. They are damned anyways, you cannot save them.” |
| ↑17 | “May each of my friends disappear one by one.” A common experience growing up, and that only accelerates the older you get; hence the great need to hold on to those friends you do have while you have them. Joseph Smith once called friendship “The Grand Fundamental Principle of Mormonism.” I fear sometimes we take our friends too much for granted. |
| ↑18 | “And shoot and kill my last piece of conscience.” See note above about the loss of innocence; same commentary applies. |
| ↑19 | “May all words be consumed on the lips.” For it is never the words themselves that persuade us, but the thing beyond words, the groanings beyond utterance, the peace of God which surpasseth understanding– |
| ↑20 | “May they contaminate all the water of the planet.” Something else that is also quite literally happening, not as metaphor; we will be held accountable for our collective failure to be wise stewards of the Earth. For if we cannot take care of the Earthly riches, then who will ever entrust to us the Heavenly ones? |
| ↑21 | “Or may they renounce the philanthropists and the wise.” In our era of gross anti-intellectualism and performative cruelty, we truly have renounced the philanthropists and wise. Again, due to iniquity, the love of many has waxed cold… |
| ↑22 | “And may the last poet die today.” Given the marginal state of poetry today in our broader Pop culture, this has arguably already happened; for if nobody reads a poem, did it really get written?
The poets shouldn’t feel too bad, however; they are like the scriptures in that regard, something everyone respects but never reads. As the Savior quoted to Joseph Smith in the sacred grove, “They draw close to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me…” All the Earth can testify how true that still is today. Some days I wonder if Nietzsche was really right after all, if the last good Christian died on the cross… |
| ↑23 | Important to emphasize that this word in the chorus is in the subjunctive form; she’s not saying “Quedas,” that you will be left with me, but “Quedes,” hopefully you will. This track is ultimately an expression of hope, though fully recognizing that it is encumbent upon us personally to fulfill it. It is by grace we are saved, after all we can do. |