Does anyone have an English translation of the Cuban song Che Guevara?

Sorry—I went lookin’, but didn’t find anything useful… There’s lots of information about Che Guevara out there, though.

-Tim

The two Che songs that come to mind are "Fusil Contra Fusil" by Silvio Rodriquez and "Zamba del Che" by Victor Jara. I tried earthing out some lyrics, but ran out of google hits and patience.

Do you have any more clues as to the song you’re looking for?

Certainly, Silvio Rodriguez has written and performed many songs about Che. It seems he and some other performers arranged a concert in memory of the 30th anniversary of Guevara’s death. I’ll keep digging.  

AH….is it this one?

Hasta siempre, Comandante!

Aprendimos a quererte
desde la històrica
donde el sol de tu bravura
le puso cerco a la muerte.
Aquì se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.
Tu mano gloriosa y fuerte
sobre la historia dispara
cuando todo Santa Clara
se despierta para verte.
Aquì se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.
Vienes quemando la brisa
con soles de primavera
para plantar la bandera
con la luz de tu sonrisa.
Aquì se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.
Tu amor revolucionario
te conduce a nueva empresa
donde esperan la firmeza
de tu brazo libertario.
Aquì se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.
Seguiremos adelante
como junto a ti seguimos
y con Fidel te decimos
Hasta siempre, Comandante !
Aquì se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.
Abbiamo imparato ad amarti
altura dalla storica altura
dove il sole del tuo coraggio
ha posto l’assedio alla morte.
Ci rimane la chiara
la pregnante trasparenza
della tua cara presenza
Comandante Che Guevara.
La tua mano gloriosa e forte
spara sulla storia
quando tutta Santa Clara
si risveglia per vederti.
Ci rimane la chiara
la pregnante trasparenza
della tua cara presenza
Comandante Che Guevara.
Arrivi bruciando la brezza
con soli di primavera
per piantare la bandiera
con la luce del tuo sorriso.
Ci rimane la chiara
la pregnante trasparenza
della tua cara presenza
Comandante Che Guevara.
Il tuo amore rivoluzionario
ti porta verso nuove imprese
dove aspettano la fermezza
del tuo abbraccio libertario.
Ci rimane la chiara
la pregnante trasparenza
della tua cara presenza
Comandante Che Guevara.
Andremo sempre avanti
come abbiamo fatto con te
e con Fidel ti diciamo
Hasta siempre, Comandante !
Ci rimane la chiara
la pregnante trasparenza
della tua cara presenza
Comandante Che Guevara.

Perhaps one of our resident geniuses would venture a translation. My Spanish sucks big-time.

;D

Interesting!  This song begins in Spanish and switches over to Italian…

[quote author=Palewriter link=board=translate;num=1047103723;start=0#3 date=03/08/03 at 10:05:14]Hasta siempre, Comandante!

Aprendimos a quererte
desde la histórica
donde el sol de tu bravura
le puso cerco a la muerte.

Aquí se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.

Tu mano gloriosa y fuerte
sobre la historia dispara
cuando todo Santa Clara
se despierta para verte.

Aquí se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.

Vienes quemando la brisa
con soles de primavera
para plantar la bandera
con la luz de tu sonrisa.

Aquí se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.

Tu amor revolucionario
te conduce a nueva empresa
donde esperan la firmeza
de tu brazo libertario.

Aquí se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.

Seguiremos adelante
como junto a ti seguimos
y con Fidel te decimos
Hasta siempre, Comandante !

Aquí se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.

Abbiamo imparato ad amarti
altura dalla storica altura
dove il sole del tuo coraggio
ha posto l’assedio alla morte.

Ci rimane la chiara
la pregnante trasparenza
della tua cara presenza
Comandante Che Guevara.

La tua mano gloriosa e forte
spara sulla storia
quando tutta Santa Clara
si risveglia per vederti.

Ci rimane la chiara
la pregnante trasparenza
della tua cara presenza
Comandante Che Guevara.

Arrivi bruciando la brezza
con soli di primavera
per piantare la bandiera
con la luce del tuo sorriso.

Ci rimane la chiara
la pregnante trasparenza
della tua cara presenza
Comandante Che Guevara.

Il tuo amore rivoluzionario
ti porta verso nuove imprese
dove aspettano la fermezza
del tuo abbraccio libertario.

Ci rimane la chiara
la pregnante trasparenza
della tua cara presenza
Comandante Che Guevara.

Andremo sempre avanti
come abbiamo fatto con te
e con Fidel ti diciamo
Hasta siempre, Comandante !

Ci rimane la chiara
la pregnante trasparenza
della tua cara presenza
Comandante Che Guevara.

I italicized the refrain to set it apart from the verses.

-Tim

I think the Italian is just a translation of the Spanish.

Patricia/AgDrgn

I bought some cds in cuba and there are several versions of the song recorded so i figured it’s quite popular there.  I was hoping someone had even a loose translation, I realize Cubans don’t have a whole lot of internet access ???

dodo, you should try this website:

http://world.altavista.com

You can copy any text from any web-page and copy it into the translation box, then choose the from language (what the text is written in) and the to language.

-Tim

Tim

I couldn’t resist, so I copied the Spanish from the original lyrics page into altavista. Here’s what I got:

We learned to quererte from the històrica where the sun of your fierceness put wall to him to the death. Aquì remains clear the close transparency of your beloved is present at Commander Che Guevara. Your glorious and strong hand on history shoots when all Santa Clara awakes for verte. Aquì remains clear the close transparency of your beloved is present at Commander Che Guevara. You come burning the breeze with suns from spring to plant the flag with the light of your smile. Aquì remains clear the close transparency of your beloved is present at Commander Che Guevara. Your revolutionary love leads to you to new company where they wait for the firmness of your libertario arm. Aquì remains clear the close transparency of your beloved is present at Commander Che Guevara. We will follow ahead as next to you we followed and with Fidel we say to you Until always, Commander!

This is wonderful stuff. It must be a comfort to human translators the world over to know that computers have a ways to go.  ;D

Palewriter, if you notice, that’s why I edited the accents in your text when I reposted the lyrics…

Until always, Commander!

We learned to love you from the historical one where the sun of your fierceness put wall to him to the death.

Here the close transparency of your beloved remains clear is present at Commander Che Guevara.

Your glorious and strong hand on history shoots when all Santa Clara awakes to see you.

Here the close transparency of your beloved remains clear is present at Commander Che Guevara.

You come burning the breeze with suns from spring to plant the flag with the light of your smile.

Here the close transparency of your beloved remains clear is present at Commander Che Guevara.

Your revolutionary love leads to you to new company where they wait for the firmness of your libertario arm.

Here the close transparency of your beloved remains clear is present at Commander Che Guevara.

We will follow ahead as next to you we followed and with Fidel we say to you Until always, Commander!

Here the close transparency of your beloved remains clear is present at Commander Che Guevara.

It’s a good example of what idiomatic expressions sound like to foreigners.  If that’s how the idiomatic expressions literally translate into English…

-Tim

P.S. I had to ‘fix’ quererte and verte, by separating the -te (that’s called a reflexive pronoun, I think…) so that they would translate correctly.

P.P.S. But you’re right, Palewriter, human translators have nothing to fear, at least for the foreseeable future!

good example of what idiomatic expressions sound like to foreigners

Good point. I hadn’t thought of that.

Anyway, if I’d known enough about the source language to fix the accents and the reflexive pronouns, I probably could have figured the rest out too.  ;)

Heaven help us if some genius decides to dispense with human translators (expensive, cranky) in favor of translation software (which perhaps would be called Oversitting for Windows?). Orwell’s newspeak sounds positively poetic in comparison.  ;D

Amen!

Those mechanical translators are butchers!

But, then, the human ones be can be too!

What is that Italian phrase, "translator, traitor?"

Sitran

"translator, traitor?"

Good one, Sitran. Never heard that before.  ;D

It seems I can pretty much read through the
Spanish part of the song.

I am very inept at cutting and pasting, and all
the other finer points of manipulating data on
the computer, but if someone would e-mail me
the lyrics, so I can print it out and take it home
to work on, I’ll post a translation later.

Sitran

Katy,

I would translate this:

Aquí se queda la clara
la entrañable transparencia
de tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara.

as

Here remains the clear
the deeply loved transparency
of your beloved presence
Commander Che Guevara

I hope this helps.

excellent, uncronopio