La Bamba

Vijay, a good friend and ex-colleague of mine, shared many of my interests/characteristics. We both loved 3D animation, had a whacky sense of humour, similar movie and music tastes .

3D animation is very time consuming, and we used to work late nights to meet crazy deadlines. During these nightouts, we'd developed a routine to play both of our favourite songs. One song we'd both loved was 'La Bamba' by Ritchie Valens. Twas a spanish song and we'd both had no clue what it meant. But we didn't care. We loved it enuf to want to dance to the foot tapping music and it kept us going in the wee hours of morning.

Today, after a long time, I was listening to that song again and nostalgia hit me. Curious about what the song's lyrics meant, I googled away. First for the full lyrics, then for it's translation in English. Here's my find:

Espanol - English:

Para bailar la bamba
In order to dance the bamba

Para bailar la bamba
In order to dance the bamba

Se necesita una poca de gracia
a little bit of grace is needed.

Una poca de gracia pa'mí y pa' ti
a little grace and another little thing

Ay Arriba y arriba
and higher and higher

Ay arriba y arriba por ti seré
and higher and higher and I will go

Por ti seré
higher and I will go

Por ti seré
higher and I will go

Yo no soy marinero,
I am not a sailor
Yo no soy marinero
I am not a sailor

Soy capitan
for you I`ll be
Soy capitan
for you I`ll be
Soy capitan
for you I`ll be

Bamba, Bamba
Bamba, Bamba
Bamba, Bamba



Does the translation make sense? Perhaps. Perhaps, the true meaning got lost in the translation. And then Perhaps we should just 'listen' to the song and decide if the words really matter :-)