Are you ready to be captivated?
Here’s a bulerías letra for you to enjoy and a video of Miguel Poveda and María Terremoto.
Bulerías
Traditional
La una y la otra son tan diferentes
una me da la vida
la otra me da la muerte
One is so different from the other
One gives me life
The other is killing me
Hear Miguel Poveda sing this starting at 6:10 in the video below. (But you’ll definitely want to watch the whole video of both him and María Terremoto.) I dare you not to dance (or at least play palmas) while you listen and watch.
Isn’t he the cutest ever when he does his little remate with the last line of today’s letra?
What’s your favorite part of the video?
Can you help?
I struggled deciding how to translate that first line. I’d love to know how you would word it in the comments below.
A Note On Lettering Letras:
In 2013 I began writing out The Weekly Letra, then called Viernes Con Una Letra. While I don't hand letter the flamenco verse every week, I do it much of the time.
Artist Lisa Congdon inspired me/gave me permission to begin doing this and to further explore lettering. (You can see that the letras I wrote out in the beginning were pretty rudimentary.)
I love Lisa’s work and outlook on creativity and have looked to her for inspiration and encouragement over the years. So when I discovered that her designs would be on these new limited edition FSC-certified paper lipstick tube packages for Beautycounter (who I'm an independent consultant with) I FLIPPED OUT.
These paper tubes are the coolest, and the colors are bold. (See below.) Can you see wearing those for a flamenco show or what?!? Here I am with Lisa, and here are those lipsticks:
With Lisa Congdon in her Portland store
Beautycounter Lipstick Limited Anniversary Edition
Now here’s today’s flamenco letra hand lettered by yours truly. (Thankfully I’ve come a long way from when I first began writing them out.)
Bulerías
EDIT: I sincerely appreciate the comments and thoughts on this translation that I received below and on Instagram. I was offered a number of good possibilities, as there so often are with these translations, and I ultimately chose to combine ideas. Translating poetry is no small task, and I recognize that. Thank you to the ladies below and to Saffron Translations for your help!