ELLA (SHE)

Music and lyrics by José Alfredo Jiménez
Translation by Coby Lubliner

Me cansé de rogarle,
me cansé de decirle que yo sin ella
de pena muero.
Ya no quiso escucharme,
si sus labios se abrieron fue pa’ decirme:
ya no te quiero.

Yo sentí que mi vida
se perdía en un abismo profundo y negro
como mi suerte.
Quise hallar el olvido
al estilo Jalisco,
pero aquellos mariachis y aquel tequila
me hicieron llorar.

Me cansé de rogarle.
Con el llanto en mis ojos alcé mi copa
y brindé con ella.
No podía despreciarme,
era el último brindis de un bohemio
con una reina.

Los mariachis callaron.
De mi mano sin fuerza cayó mi copa
sin darme cuenta.
Ella quizo quedarse
cuando vio mi tristeza
pero ya estaba escrito que aquella noche
perdiera su amor.

I was tired of pleading;
I was tired of telling her that without her
I’d die of sorrow.
She was past any heeding;
She spoke only to tell me that her love for me
Has no tomorrow.

I felt my life was sinking
In a bottomless pit that was black and murky
Just like my fortune.
I tried finding forgetting
In the style of Jalisco,
But those very mariachis and that tequila,
They just made me cry.

I was tired of pleading.
I raised my glass to toast her while in my eyes the
Tears could be seen.
She could not help conceding,
For this was the last toast that a poor Bohemian
Made to a queen.

The mariachis fell silent.
With no strength in my hand, the glass slipped out, though
I did not feel it.
Now she wanted to stay there
When she saw all my sadness,
But by then it was written that on that evening
Her love would be lost.

Translation © 2006 by Jacob Lubliner

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