No quería que jugáramos con nuestros juguetes.
She didn't want us to play with our toys.
Caption 49, Guillermina y Candelario - El mundo de los juguetes perdidos
Play Caption
Porque sin ti no me importan los minutos ni los días
Because without you I don't care about minutes or days
Caption 8, Belinda - Bella Traición
Play Caption
No te conoce el toro ni la higuera,
The bull does not know you, nor the fig tree,
ni caballos ni hormigas de tu casa.
nor the horses, nor the ants at your house.
Captions 4-5, Acercándonos a la Literatura - García Lorca - Alma ausente
Play Caption
Mira, nunca me vayas a olvidar
Look, never forget me
Caption 24, Alberto Barros - Mano a mano
Play Caption
Porque en el campo no hay nadie. -Claro.
Because there is nobody in the field. -Of course.
Caption 19, 75 minutos - Del campo a la mesa
Play Caption
No me gusta deberle nada a nadie.
I don't like to owe anything to anyone.
Caption 12, El Ausente - Acto 2
Play Caption
Notice how in the previous quote the English translation uses the negative “don’t” first, and then the affirmative “anything” and “anyone” instead of “nothing” and “nobody” (which are the literal equivalent to nada and nadie). This is so because formal written English doesn’t use double negation. By contrast, the general rule in Spanish is not to mix negative and affirmative words in the same sentence. See for example:
Yo no pido nada más
I don't ask for anything else
Caption 14, Enrique Iglesias - Alguien soy yo
Play Caption
From the lyrics of Belinda's "Bella Traición" ("Beautiful Betrayal"), you might detect bitterness:
Lo siento si agoté la ilusión
I'm sorry if I ran out of hope
Caption 12, Belinda - Bella Traición
Play Caption
The verb agotar means "to exhaust; to use up; to run out of." It's helpful to remember that the noun gota means "drop" as in "a drop of water," (una gota de agua). The verb agotar stems from squeezing out every drop of something.
Now, you might ask why we didn't translate ilusión as its seemingly simply English cognate "illusion." After all, we might translate ilusión óptica as "optical illusion" and falsas ilusiones as "false illusions." But the Spanish ilusión has meanings you don't find in its English sound-alike. Check out these examples:
No te hagas ilusiones.
Don't get your hopes up.
Su ilusión desde pequeña era ser actriz en Broadway.
Her dream since she was little was to be an actress on Broadway.
Cuando pierdes la ilusión...
When you lose heart...
All of these examples employ "ilusión" as a synonym closer to "esperanza; sueño" or "hope; dream" in English. That's what we thought Belinda's lyrics were aiming to convey. Listen in to the song's refrain:
Porque sin ti no hay presente ni futuro, sálvame
Because without you there's no present nor future, save me
de esta bella traición que mató mi ilusión
from this beautiful betrayal that killed my hope
Captions 9-10, Belinda - Bella Traición
Play Caption
Now, before we move on we must note that ilusión has a third meaning: "excitement; thrill," as in these expressions:
Eh... con esa ilusión que a mí particularmente me hacía ver, eh...
Um... with that excitement that it particularly made me see, um...
Caption 9, Estudiantes de baile flamenco - Araceli
Play Caption
¡Qué ilusión!
How exciting!
Me hace mucha ilusión.
I'm really looking forward to it; I'm thrilled.