Traicionera

[Berkeleyman]

In the song Traicionera as sung by Pastor Lopez, the first two lines read:

Cuando se quiere como te quise
tratare de cerrar la herida que me abriste

I am completely baffled by syntax of the first line. Can somebody help me out with this ?

[pjt33]

Impersonal se: When one loves as I loved you.

I still don't see how it flows into the next line, but I haven't been able to find the true lyrics anywhere. (Only transcriptions which are full of errors).

[mikemacabre]

This help?

PASTOR LóPEZ TRAICIONERA LYRICS

Cuando se quiere como te quise
tratare de cerrar la herida que me abriste
yo he vuelto amarte y a recordarte
pero ya no puedo ahora olvidarte

Oye tracionera aunque yo me muera
donde yo me encuentre rogare por tu alma,
oye tracionera aunque yo me muera
donde yo me encuentre rogare por tu alma

[...]

[pjt33]

Originally Posted by mikemacabre

This help?

No. At the very least it's missing some accents and prepositions, which means I don't want to trust it on anything else.

[mikemacabre]

Sounds like homework.. but not for me

[Berkeleyman]

I like your take. I'm going to go with that.
I also agree with you on Mike's text. I have the same text, and it needs TLC. I'm doing a translation for a friend, so I'll probably make the corrections mi mismo....
¡Gracias amigos!

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Unfortunately, posting copyrighted material is not allowed for legal purposes. I have removed a part of the copyrighted lyrics. People are free to post questions on a few lines, as it was done by the OP, but posting the lyrics in their entirety is not allowed. Thanks!

Desgraciadamente, el poner material con derechos de autor no se permite por razones legales. Quité parte de la letra con derechos de autor. Se puede pedir ayuda sobre algunas líneas, como hizo el usuario que inició el hilo, pero no se puede poner la letra en su totalidad. ¡Gracias!


As for the question, the first verses actually say: "Cuando se quiere como te quise, trata de cerrar la herida que me abriste". However, for both cases syntax is incorrect.
As pjt said, this "se" is used for an impersonal sentence, used here as a universal projection of what the subject feels, but this first line is not a complete sentence and the second one does not match the subject in either case: with "trataré", it expresses what the subject will try to do, while "trata" is an imperative on the woman he blames for his sadness, but none of them make a complement for the first line.
The right complement should be a sentence explaining what happens when one loves that much.

A proposal for translation: When love is as intense as mine for you, try to heal the wound you made to me.

[Rusty]

Originally Posted by AngelicaDeAlquezar

A proposal for translation: When love is as intense as mine for you, try to heal the wound you made in me.

Instead of 'made in me', I would just translate it as 'opened', ignoring the pronoun. ... try to heal the wound you opened.

[AngelicaDeAlquezar]

Thank you! I wasn't sure about it.

[Berkeleyman]

As I have discovered, Angelica is right about the trata de in the second line. My bad. You have all convinced me that I'm not crazy and the syntax of the whole thing is a form of "poetic license" not to be taken literally. After all, it's a song and has to fit the melody.... :-)