Sung poems

Reviewing each and every one of the songs of each and every one of the current and previous singers of our time is very difficult. What is not so difficult is to realize how many songs seem like poetry and how many recognized and anonymous poems have become songs. The literature and music they are arts that are closely linked; every song has some poetry and almost all poetry could become a song.

Today we want to review these three poems made into song. Do they sound familiar?

«To a dry elm», written by Antonio Machado and sung by Serrat

"To a dry elm tree" It is titled a song sung by the well-known Joan Manuel Serrat and written almost entirely by the Spanish poet Antonio Machado. Serrat borrows many more poems by this well-known Sevillian poet: «Songs», «The saeta», «The flies», «Crying and verses on the death of Don Guido» y "Portrait". All are sung in the 70s by the Catalan singer.

To the old elm, split by lightning
and in its rotten half,
with the April rains and the May sun,
some green leaves have come out.

The centennial elm on the hill ...
A yellowish moss
licks the whitish bark
to the rotten and dusty trunk.

Before I knock you down, Duero elm,
with his ax the woodcutter, and the carpenter
I turn you into a bell's mane,
wagon lance or wagon yoke;
before red in the home, tomorrow,
burn from some miserable hut.

Before the river to the sea pushes you
through valleys and ravines,
elm, I want to note in my portfolio
the grace of your green branch.

My heart waits
also towards the light and towards life,
another miracle of spring.

"Before loving you, love", written by Pablo Neruda and sung by Pedro Guerra

"Before loving you, love" It was the Chilean's chosen poetry Pablo Neruda by the spanish singer Pedro Guerra. A romantic poem where they exist and of extreme delicacy and beauty. Pedro Guerra is not the only one who realizes the possibilities of the lyrics written by Neruda. There are many other artists who sing the poems of the Chilean. Among them are the deceased Antonio Vega that sang that of «I don't love you except because I love you», «Ode to the guitar» by Vicente Friend, "The wind combs my hair" sung by flamenco Miguel Poveda o "Shut up" by the mexican Julieta Venegas.

Before loving you, love, nothing was mine:
I wavered through the streets and things:
nothing counted or had a name:
the world was of the air that I expected.

I knew ashen halls,
tunnels inhabited by the moon,
cruel hangars saying goodbye,
questions that insisted on the sand.

Everything was empty, dead and mute,
fallen, abandoned and decayed,
everything was inalienably alien,

everything belonged to others and nobody,
until your beauty and your poverty
they filled the autumn with gifts.

"Tierra luna", written by Mario Benedetti and sung by Eugenia León

I will never stop applauding the Uruguayan lyrics Mario Benedetti and this poem titled «Earth Moon» it was not going to be less. The same would think Eugenia Leon when in the 80's he decided to sing it. Other poems by Benedetti that were sung are: "Let's make a deal", "Defense of joy" y "The south also exists", all three in the voice of Joan Manuel Serrat o «I love you» y "Yet" by Nacha guevara.

When I get tired of the routine
of being outraged and robbed,
when I get tired of this ruin
I will move to the young moon

Oh! Earth-Moon, Earth-Moon,
I wear the golden wings today
and sky above, like a meteor,
I'm going.

Oh! Earth-Moon, Earth-Moon,
behind was the luck bitch,
behind the dead and the war,
goodbye!

Some time my life still
see explode in the past
my sad and candid planet
who thought himself civilized.

Oh! Earth-Moon, Earth-Moon,
chaotic and rotten world,
from up here I say goodbye
Goodbye!

"The wind combs my hair", written by Pablo Neruda and sung by Miguel Poveda

Listen to these verses in the flamenco tone so characteristic of Miguel Poveda it is a real beauty. Miguel Poveda sings from bulerías to coplas, and although his musical career has progressed a lot, he still occasionally dedicates some of his compositions to ancient verses.

The wind combs my hair
like a maternal hand:
I open the door of memory
and the thought goes away.

They are other voices that I carry,
my singing is from other lips:
to my grotto of memories
has a strange clarity!

Fruits of foreign lands,
blue waves of another sea,
loves of other men, sorrows
that I dare not remember.

And the wind, the wind that combs my hair
like a maternal hand!

My truth is lost in the night:
I have no night or truth!

Lying in the middle of the road
they must step on me to walk.

Their hearts pass through me
drunk with wine and dreaming.

I am a motionless bridge between
your heart and eternity.

If I died suddenly
I would not stop singing!

 "I love you", written by Mario Benedetti and sung by Nacha Guevara

As we said before, Nacha Guevara has also been one of the lucky singers to put a voice and rhythm to the poems of Benedetti. Among several, we chose this one for the beauty of its handwriting.

Your hands are my caress
my everyday chords
I love you because your hands
they work for justice

If I love you, it's because you are
my love my accomplice and everything
and in the street side by side
We are much more than two

your eyes are my spell
against the bad day
I love you for your look
what looks and sows future

your mouth that is yours and mine
your mouth is not wrong
I love you because your mouth
knows how to scream rebellion

If I love you, it's because you are
my love my accomplice and everything
and in the street side by side
We are much more than two

and for your sincere face
and your wandering step
And your tears for the world
because you are a people I love you

and because love is not a halo
nor candid moral
and because we are a couple
who knows that she is not alone

I want you in my paradise
that is to say that in my country
people live happy
even if I don't have permission

If I love you, it's because you are
my love my accomplice and everything
and in the street side by side
We are much more than two.

 "Words for Julia", written by José Agustín Goytisolo and sung by the group Los Suaves

Since Paco Ibañez I will cover these lyrics of the writer goytisolor, there are many groups that have joined to cover it. If you like Los Suaves, you will like his version of this great poem: "Words for Julia".

You can't go back
because life already pushes you
like an endless howl.

My daughter it is better to live
with the joy of men
than crying before a blind wall.

You will feel cornered
you will feel lost and alone
maybe you want not to have been born.

I know very well what they will tell you
that life has no purpose
which is an unfortunate affair.

So always remember
of what one day I wrote
thinking of you as I think now.

A man just a woman
thus taken one by one
they are like dust they are nothing.

But when I speak to you
when i write these words to you
I also think of other men.

Your destiny is in others
your future is your own life
your dignity is everyone's.

Others hope you resist
may your joy help them
your song among his songs.

So always remember
of what one day I wrote
thinking of you as I think now.

Never give up or turn away
by the way never say
I can't take it anymore and here I stay.

Life is beautiful you'll see
as despite the regrets
you will have love you will have friends.

Otherwise there is no choice
and this world as it is
it will be all your heritage.

Forgive me, I don't know how to tell you
nothing else but you understand
that I'm still on the road.

And always remember
of what one day I wrote
thinking of you as I think now.

"I will not be young again", verses written by the poet Jaime Gil de Biedma and sung by Loquillo

Jaime Gil de Viedma I would write this poem "I will never be young again" among many others in his book "The people of the verb." Loquillo liked it and decided to cover it many years ago (more than 20)… Although it is not the last, Miguel Poveda has also sung it.

That life was serious
one begins to understand later
Like all young people, I came
to take my life ahead.

Leave a mark
and leave between applause
to grow old, to die, they were just
the dimensions of the theater.

But time has passed
and the unpleasant truth appears:
to grow old, to die
it is the only argument of the work.

We hope you have enjoyed both the verses and the music. If you like this type of article in which we combine both arts: literature and music, you just have to tell us and we will be happy to bring you new versions, much more current and from foreign writers. Do you know more sung poems that you want to share with us?