La Música de Miércoles: Cuando me Enamoro, por Enrique Iglesias y Juan Luis Guerra
Note: Advanced speakers - watch this version, not the version below! Cuando me enamoro
Picking our 'Música de Miércoles' is a joy and a pain. I have a massive selection to pick from, but am looking for things with lessons that can appeal to a wide range of Spanish levels.
I can’t help thinking that some of what I select is maybe a bit obvious - but ballads seem a great place to start, and Dominican singer with a conscience Juan Luis Guerra has been a favourite of mine since I had my first whiff of Spanish. Team him up with younger Spanish singer Enrique Iglesias and it’s almost impossible not to love.
So Cuando me Enamoro it is, even if the song is now well into its second decade.
The Words (Las Palabras/Las letras)
(La(s) letra(s)means the lyrics: las palabras, the words)
Artistas: Enrique Iglesias, Juan Luis Guerra
Álbum: Euphoria (2010)
[Intro: Enrique Iglesias & Juan Luis Guerra]
Ooh…. ooh
[Verso 1: Enrique Iglesias]
Si pudiera bajarte una estrella del cielo
Lo haría sin pensarlo dos veces
Porque te quiero, ay
Y hasta un lucero, oh
[Verso 2: Juan Luis Guerra]
Si tuviera el naufragio de un sentimiento
Sería un velero en la isla
De tus deseos, oh. De tus deseos, oh
[Coro: Enrique Iglesias]
Pero por dentro
Entiende que no puedo
(unclear) Ya de vez me pierdo
[Coro: Enrique Iglesias & Juan Luis Guerra]
Cuando me enamoro….A veces desespero
Cuando me enamoro
Y cuando menos me lo espero, me enamoro
Se detiene el tiempo
Me viene el alma al cuerpo
Sonrío
Cuando me enamoro
Ooh, ooh ooh….. Ooh, ooh ooh
[Verso 3: Juan Luis Guerra]
Si la luna sería tu premio
Yo juraría hacer cualquier cosa
Por ser su dueño, ay
Por ser tu dueño, oh
[Verso 4: Enrique Iglesias & Juan Luis Guerra]
Y si en tus sueños escuchas el llanto
De mis lamentos
En tus sueños no sigas dormida
Que es verdadero, ay
No es un sueño, no
Me alegro que a veces el final
No encuentre su momento, oh no
[Coro: Enrique Iglesias & Juan Luis Guerra]
Cuando me enamoro a veces desespero
Cuando me enamoro y cuando menos me lo espero, me enamoro
Se detiene el tiempo
Me viene el alma al cuerpo
Sonrío, sonrío
Cuando me enamoro a veces desespero
Cuando me enamoro y cuando menos me lo espero, me enamoro
Se detiene el tiempo
Me viene el alma al cuerpo, al cuerpo
Sonrío, sonrío
Cuando me enamoro
Ooh, ooh ooh…. Ooh, ooh ooh
Image generated by AI
Beginners
What a lovely way to listen to some Spanish with a decidedly Latin feel.
For you, I’d suggest you listen through - just listen to begin with and see what you can pick up. Although it’s deceptively simple, there’ are some subjunctive and conditional tenses in here. Don’t let it worry you - you’ll come onto this, but it’s a common way of speaking about something hypothetical or that we wish might happen. It doesn’t hurt just to be familiar with it when you hear it. By the time you get onto using it, it will feel like an old friend, a lot less scary, especially when it’s put in such a poetic way. You might even start using it without even thinking about it.
The words I’m talking about are verbs like pudiera (if I could), tuviera (if I had), lo haría (I would do it). We don’t need so many words in Spanish - the verb ending does it for us.
Once you’ve listened through, listen again with the translation. Note any useful vocabulary you’re seeing for the first time, but pop the verbs aside. They’ll come with time by listening and hopefully repeating them as you sing along later. (If you’re feeling super brave, why not sing along with the karaoke version of the song? I find this song quite hard with the timing, but that’s just me!)
If you want more, have a look at, and practise, the use of the ñ in sueño and sueño, noting the pronunciation. Which other common words do you now that use that ‘nya’ sound. (You know - or can find - the word for the morning/tomorrow, I’m sure.)
I’ve also underlined some common, useful everyday expressions for you.
Image generated by AI
Intermediate Learners
What a gift of a song! I have two learning exercises for you.
A verb work out
Firstly, why not identify those verb tenses and translations I mentioned above, the conditionals and subjunctives. Use your verb table to look them up if you have one. Give Google Translate a run for its money by changing the person in those tenses. You don’t need an expensive app to give yourself a little mini verb work out.
eg
Yo juraría hacer cualquier cosa - I would swear to do anything.
If you change it to you (tu form) would swear you’d get Jurarías, you would swear (eg Jurarías que no sucedió- you’d swear it didn’t happen. Or better still No pasó, just to ‘round the square’.)
Play with it. Invent some phrases you might use or that make you laugh. We’re learning, not doing exams.
Creating new words with ‘des’
We have the words espero (I hope, in this context) and desespero (I despair, lose hope)
The prefix des is one you’ll hear a lot, and being aware of it can you the clueto what someone is saying when you don’t know the word.
Think about the similarities between agua and desagua/desagüe (drain/drainage); hacer (to do/make) and deshacer (‘unmake’)
Can you think of others?
Don’t stress if it’s not coming to you immediately, just keep an eye out for them.
Image generated by AI
Advanced Speakers
Hopefully you caught my message above and have watched the Spanish version not the one with the English translation.
Can you translate it into English?
This is a fairly simple text with some lovely sophisticated phrasing.
Listen through and see what you get without translating, and then translate as required. There’s very little vocabulary in here that won’t serve you, even naufragio, shipwreck, which is often colloquially used for a disater - as it is here.
Want better grammar?
If you’re ‘hotting up’ your grammar and correct usage, depending on how you’ve been taught, identify in this song:
conditional and subjunctive tenses. (The link thereis to a quite succint page on the difference if you’re wobbling.)
what’s the difference between estrella and lucero?
can you spot any reflexive verbs and why they’ve been used in the reflexive here? (eg me enamoro)
If you’re ‘hotting up’ your grammar and correct usage, depending on how you’ve been taught, identify in this song:
conditional and subjunctive tenses. (The link thereis to a quite succint page on the difference if you’re wobbling.)
what’s the difference between estrella and lucero?
can you spot any reflexive verbs and why they’ve been used in the reflexive here? (eg me enamoro)
Bonus question for all
Are Dominica (home to Juan Luis Guerra) and the Dominican Republic the same place?
In Conclusion….
So there you have it, some ways to make a lovely song by two World class Hispanic artists help your Spanish along.
If you want to join in the fun in person, Classes with Claire runs in venues across West Sussex and there’s a programme of useful ‘stuff’ online, including monthly conversation classes, monthly bingo (great for number recall) and ad hoc bits to help my own students that others can join.
And if you love music, save the date for a Spanish Christmas singalong on December 10.
I’ll have you loving Spanish and all things Hispanic if it’s the last thing I do!
