In his excellent review of Río Muerto, Gabino Iglesias makes a valid point about cultural elements that inevitably get lost in translation. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to explain my reasons for translating the songs featured in the novel into English and also offer a playlist for inquisitive readers.
Usually, I prefer to leave songs in the original language where possible, sometimes providing a gloss elsewhere in the text to help the reader. For example, the lyrics ‘diablo, diablo‘ might be followed by a character observing that ‘they were singing that song about the devil again’.
But in Río Muerto, I felt the songs chosen by Ricardo Silva Romero played an important role in foreshadowing the terrible events to come, so unless my English readers had some sense of what was being said, a significant element of the novel would be lost.
Saying this, I did regret that readers interested in the music would find it difficult to hunt down original songs through my translations. Future editions will include a track list somewhere in the book. But for now, here’s the original Río Muerto soundtrack!
- “La creciente” by Rafael Orozco y El Binomio de Oro https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-g1O38ycIVc
- “Sopa de caracol” by Banda Blanca https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JkQmrPXwSNU
- “Tu pum pum” by El General https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNWRCWkRr84
- “Gracias a la vida” by Violeta Parra https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w67-hlaUSIs
- “Si no te hubieras ido” by Marco Antonio Solís https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH8oCh1nn88
– Victor