[Alpharius]

I've been getting my Spanish back over the past few months. I used to be not quite fluent, but certainly conversational after living and doing research in Central America for awhile during college. My summer project is to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in Spanish, and to get ready for that I've been reading the news in Spanish, reviewing vocab with Duolinguo, Memrise, and Babel. However the way I learned the most originally was through music. I'm figuring I'll post some of the songs that helped me learn here on the forum with lyrics in both English and Spanish, and maybe some of you guys who are just starting to learn could also use my method to help yourselves.

I'll try to post a couple songs a week depending on how much time I have. I'll try to keep the songs pretty basic for now and gradually ramp it up in terms of difficulty. If I make any mistakes translating, please feel free to help out.

First song:
La historia de Juan by Juanes
This song has a lot of basic vocabulary and is used in a lot of Spanish classes, so I figured I'd start here. Don't worry if you don't get the different tenses, focus on word recognition (love/amor, sing/cantar, jugar/play, etc...). Tenses come with time, study, and practice.

Esta es la historia de juan, el niño que nadie amó
This is the story of Juan, the boy that nobody loved
que por las calles creció buscando el amor bajo el sol
who grew up on the streets looking for love under the sun
su madre lo abandonó
his mother abandoned him
su padre lo maltrató
his father mistreated him
su casa fue un callejón
his home was an alley
su cama un cartón su amigo dios
his bed cardboard, his friend god
juan preguntó por amor
Juan asked for love
y el mundo se lo negó
and the world denied him
juan preguntó por honor
Juan asked for honor
y el mundo le dió deshonor
the world gave him dishonor
juan preguntó por perdón
Juan asked for forgiveness
y el mundo lo lastimó
and the world gave him hurt/pain
juan preguntó y preguntó y el mundo jamás lo escuchó
Juan asked and asked and the world never heard

El sólo quiso jugar el sólo quiso soñar el sólo quiso amar
He only wanted to play, he only wanted to dream, he only wanted to love
pero el mundo lo olvidó
but the world forgot him
el sólo quiso volar el sólo quiso cantar el sólo quiso amar
he only wanted to fly, he only wanted to sing, he only wanted to love
pero el mundo lo olvidó
but the world forgot him
Tan fuerte fue su dolor que un día se lo llevó
So strong was his pain that one day it took him
tan fuerte fue su dolor que su corazón se apagó
so strong was his pain that his heart went out
tan fuerte fue su temor que un día solo lloró
so strong was his fear that one day he only cried
tan fuerte fue su temor que un día su luz se apagó
so strong was his fear that one day his light went out
El sólo quiso jugar el sólo quiso soñar el sólo quiso amar
He only wanted to play, he only wanted to dream, he only wanted to love
pero el mundo lo olvidó
but the world forgot him