I don't know what's making me so romantic today. It's the last weekday of school vacation here in MA, so on Monday it's back to teaching hs kids the basics of Spanish grammar.
On Valentine's Day, mrs. litho and li'l litho teamed up to get me an iPod touch, which I've been playing with like any kid with a new toy. It took me a little while to figure out how to make the bluetooth work, but now I'm enjoying shuffling my music and listening to it over the sound system in the living room.
I know, I know, I'm about two or three years behind the curve on the technology. In my defense, I'm actually doing it.
So a little bit ago the iPod rotated around to "Geografía," a 2003 song by the Spanish band La Oreja de Van Gogh. It had me sobbing, and for the official video and translated lyrics follow me over the flip...
Here's the video:
And here's my translation of the Spanish lyrics:
I’d like to invent a country with you
So that words like homeland or future
Flag, nation, border, race or fate
Would mean something to me
It could border on the east with a thousand friends
On the south with your passion and on the west with the sea
On the north with the secrets I never tell you
So that you can govern them closely if you want to conquer them
And if you feel it too, if you can taste it
Don’t think about it, let’s go, just the two of us.
Why don’t you give me your hand and we’ll take that ship
Celebrating with a kiss that today is today.
That our homeland exists wherever you and I are
That everything will be close if the two of us are close
That our homeland exists wherever you and I are
That everything will be close, let’s go.
I would love for our country to have
An immense arsenal of caresses below the sea
So that when night falls I could light two candles
To invade your intimacy by surprise.
With two inhabitants it will be the smallest in the world
Yet still the largest of any that I have ever seen
I’m telling you this anthem I write is sincere,
It says there are as many countries as there are inhabitants of every country
And if you feel it too, if you can taste it
Don’t think about it, let’s go, just the two of us.
Why don’t you give me your hand and we’ll take that ship
Celebrating with a kiss that today is today.
That our homeland exists wherever you and I are
That everything will be close if the two of us are close
That our homeland exists wherever you and I are
That everything will be close, let’s go you and I.
The more I listen to the song, the more I watch the video, the more I can't stop crying. That image of a country founded just for love, with an "arsenal of caresses" stockpiled "below the sea," in a world where every couple could have their own, with friends to the east, and passion to the south, I don't know why it hits me that hard, but it does.
And then on top of it the images in the video of a multi-racial Spain, open to its immigrants from the Middle East, from Africa, from Asia, a Spain in which both multi-racial and homosexual couples are welcome...
Here are the lyrics in Spanish:
Me gustaría inventar un país contigo
Para que las palabras como patria o porvenir,
Bandera, nación, frontera, raza o destino
Tuvieran algún sentido para mí
Y que limite al este con mil amigos
Al sur con tus pasiones y al oeste con el mar
Al norte con los secretos que nunca te digo
Para gobernarlos de cerca si los quieres conquistar
Si tú también lo sientes, si a ti también te apetece,
No lo pienses, vámonos, ya somos dos.
Porque no me das la mano y nos cogemos este barco
Celebrando con un beso que hoy es hoy.
Que nuestra patria existe donde estemos tú y yo,
Que todo estará cerca si cerca estamos los dos.
Que nuestra patria existe donde estemos tú y yo,
Que todo estará cerca, vámonos.
Me encantaría que nuestro país tuviera
Un arsenal inmenso de caricias bajo al mar
Para que al caer la noche yo encienda dos velas
Para invadirte por sorpresa en la intimidad.
Con dos habitantes será el más pequeño del mundo
Y sin embargo el más grande de todos los que yo vi.
De veras te digo que el himno que escribo es sincero,
Habla de que hay tantos países como gente en cada país.
Si tú también lo sientes, si a ti también te apetece,
No lo pienses, vámonos, ya somos dos.
Porque no me das la mano y nos cogemos este barco
Celebrando con un beso que hoy es hoy.
Que nuestra patria existe donde estemos tú y yo,
Que todo estará cerca si cerca estamos los dos,
Que nuestra patria existe donde estemos tú y yo
Que todo estará cerca, no lo pienses vámonos
Porque nuestra patria existe donde estemos tú y yo
Que todo estará cerca si cerca estamos los dos
Que todo estará cerca, vámonos tú y yo.