Besame Morenita, who wrote it?

marcus

There is a YouTube of Adan Sanchez performing this song. Did he write the song? If not, does anyone know the author? Is it a folksong?

MIRAME MIRAME
QUIEREME QUIEREME
BESAME MORENITA
QUE ME ESTOY MURIENDO
POR ESA BOQUITA
TAN JUGOSA Y FRESCA
TAN COLORADITA

COMO UNA MANZANA
DULCE Y MADURITA
QUE ME ESTA DICIENDO
NO MUERDAS TAN DURO NO SEAS GOLOSO
QUE CHUPA QUE CHUPA QUE'S MAS SABROSO
Y HACI ME LO DIJO
MI MORENITA

QUE ME ESTA DICIENDO
QUE BESA QUE BESA LA CONDENADA
QUE ESE MORDISCO NO SABE A NADA
Y HACI ME LO DIJO MI MORENITA
MIRAME QUIEREME
BESAME MORENITA
MIRAME QUIEREME
BESAME MORENITA...

Adan Sanchez was a Mexican-American singer-songwriter born in Torrance (greater LA). He lived 1984-2004.

marcus

I found a website indicating that the Colombian composer Alvaro Dalmar wrote the song:
http://www.todacolombia.com/folclor/...es/besame.html

The layout of lines is a little different so I will copy--maybe it is more authentic:


Mírame, mírame, quiéreme, quiéreme
Bésame morenita

Que me estoy muriendo, por esa boquita
Tan jugosa y fresca, tan coloradita
Como una manzana dulce y madurita
Que me está diciendo
No muerdas con todo, no seas goloso
Y chupa que chupa que es más sabroso
Y dale un abrazo a tu morenita.

Y me está pidiendo que besa
Que besa la condenada
Haber si un mordisco no sabe a nada
Y así me lo dice mi morenita

¡mírame! ¡quiéreme! ¡bésame morenita!
¡mírame! ¡quiéreme! ¡bésame morenita!

=====================

The website says that the song is classified (by its rhythmic type) as a "bambuco".

======================
With the help of google-translator:

...
...
I'm dying for that mouth
so juicy and fresh, so brightly colored---
like an apple sweet and ripe
that is telling me
not to bite yet, not to be greedy,
but savor the slow way that makes it more tasty
and gently embrace your morenita.

And is asking to kiss
with total abandon, like the damned.
"Have a bite if you don't know anything."
And that's what she tells me, my morenita.

marcus

There is another nice poem/popular song called Alma LLanera that I am wondering who wrote. I found a website which attributes it to Vicente Fernandez, a Venezuelan songwriter. The song has been modified by a Mexican singer named Pedro Fernandez (not apparently related) and probably by others. Here is one version, taught me by my Peruvian neighbor.

Yoooo,
yo nací en esta ribera
del Arauca vibrador,
soy hermano de la espuma,
de las rosas de las garzas,
soy hermano de la espuma,
de las rosas de las garzas,
y del sol, y del sol.

Amo, canto, sueño, rio,
con claveles de pasión,
con claveles de pasión,
Amo, canto, sueño, rio,
par' adornar las rubias crines
del potro de mi amada.

Yo nací en esta ribera
del Arauca vibrador,
Soy hermano de la espuma,
de las rosas de las garzas,
y del sol,

Meeee,
me arrulló la viva diana de
la brisa en el palmar,
y por eso tengo el alma,
como el alma primorosa,
y por eso tengo el alma,
como el alma primorosa,
del cristal, del cristal.

Amo, canto, sueño, rio,
con claveles de pasión,
con claveles de pasión,
Amo, canto, sueño, rio,
par' adornar las rubias crines
del potro de mi amada.

Yo nací en esta ribera
del Arauca vibrador
Soy hermano de la espuma
de las rosas de las garzas,
y del sol...

==========

The Arauca river arises in the Colombian Andes and runs into Venezuela, where it joins the Orinoco.

marcus

These are two popular Lat.Am. songs, both of which my Peruvian neighbor taught me. They both come from the Colombia-Venezuela region.
We know this region in part because of the great multigeneraltional novel Hundred Years of Solitude, by the Colombian author Marquez.

Maybe there is a literary tradition that we should know about. Maybe there are more songs.
The two names are Vicente Fernandez ( Venez.) and Alvaro Dalmar (Col.)
If anybody knows more related songs, please post some links.

cruzuribe

Bésame morenita was writen by Alvaro Dalmar, a colombian musician and guitar player whose real name was Alvaro Chaparro-Bermúdez, born in Bogota on March 7, 1923, who died on may 17, 1999. When he was 17 he attended Jullard and performed at "Hour Glass", a then famous New York night club, for 8 years. Then he moved to Hollywood and worked as a composer for Columbia Pictures; he also had a guitar academy and Anthony Quinn, Elizabeth Taylor and James Mason were some of his students. After leaving Hollywood he traveled all over Europe and settled in Sweden for many years. He returned to Colombia and lead an "a capella" singing quintet where some of the best colombian singers performed. He composed more than 2000 songs.

Besame Morenita is a "bambuco", a unique 6/8 colombian rythm very dificult to play for foreighn musicians because it is "asyncopated", if that word exists. Although it was meant to be song, there is a great instrumental version by the Bogota Filarmonic Orchestra you can find in the following link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vL-M...eature=related

The original version, sung by Carlos Julio Ramirez, great baritone contemporary and friend of Alvaro Dalmar who also worked in Hollywood as an actor, can be heard at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPKVl...eature=related

cruzuribe

The other song you quote, ALMA LLANERA, is a venezuelan song in the rythm of "joropo", a popular folcloric rythm from the venezuelan-colombian plains. It is considered by venezuelans as their second national anthem and was composed around 1914 to be part of a venezuelan "zarzuela", kind of a comic folk opera popular in Spain in the 17th century. Music was composed by Pedro Elias Gutierrez and lyrics were penned by Rafael Bolivar-Coronado.

skeptic2

From: http://www.todacolombia.com/folclor/...es/besame.html

CANCIÓN: BÉSAME MORENITA

Autor: Álvaro Dalmar (colombiano)
Ritmo: Bambuco

marcus

Yes. See my post #2 in this thread.
================

Cruz, thanks for the additional interesting detail about the life of Alvaro Dalmar!
I had no idea that he played NY nightclubs and taught guitar to the likes of Liz Taylor!

MJRacer

By the Quinteto Dalmar:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5Mq0LT6Hc

marcus

This YouTube (thanks MJRacer) is truly fine.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm5Mq0LT6Hc
Whoever does not take a moment to listen to the Alvaro Dalmar Quintet sing this song
is missing something beautiful.

MJRacer

In this context, "morenita" should be translated as "sweetheart."

So, "Bésame, Morenita" means "Kiss me, Sweetheart."

"colorado" is another word for the color red, so "coloradita" means red (like an apple)

"condenada" literally means condemned one or, in this case, condemnable one, as in: Damn her, she's tempting me to kiss her! She's driving me crazy! The devil!

"chupa que chupa" may be an allusion to a colloquialism for french kissing: "chupando piña." The literal translation is "sucking on a (juicy) pineapple." So, "chupa que chupa que es más sabroso," is a play on words evoking the imagery of two lovers kissing passionately hidden within the metaphor of savoring a (juicy) apple.

In the last full paragraph, the spanish is incorrect. It should be "A ver," instead of "Haber." These two are homophones. So, "a ver si un mordisco no sabe a nada," literally is: to see if a bite (at the apple) has any taste. So, substituting "a taste" for "a bite at the apple," I came up with: to see if a taste has any flavor. Poetry is hard to translate.

So, editing lightly:

Look at me, look at me, love me, love me
Kiss me, Sweetheart

I'm dying for your mouth
so juicy and fresh, so red
like an apple sweet and ripe
that is telling me
not to bite yet, not to be greedy,
but savor the slow way that makes it more tasty
and gently embrace your sweetheart.

And (she) is tempting me to kiss her
And kiss her, the devil.
To see if a taste has any flavor
And that's what she tells me, my sweetheart.

Look at me! Love me! Kiss me, Sweetheart!
Look at me! Love me! Kiss me, Sweetheart!

The whole song is about courtship. At the time this song was written, it was not unusual for engagements to last several years before marriage. If you bite the apple (i.e. rush things), it will have no taste. If you savor it on the other hand (take it slowly), the flavor is intoxicating. The whole song is dripping in seduction enough to drive a guy completely crazy. The imagery is lovely.

MJRacer

Alma LLanera is Venezuela's unofficial National Anthem. Sort of like America the Beautiful is to the US.

marcus

I like your translation

MJRacer

Carmentea

Cantar del llano, cantar de brisas del río
Ay! Carmentea tu corazón será mío.
Cantar del llano, cantar de brisas del río
Ay! Carmentea tu corazón será mío.

(Song of the plains, song of the river breezes.
Oh! Carmentea, your heart will be mine.)

Si te esquivas de mis labios,
si te alejas de mi vida,
no olvides que de este amor,
tu serás correspondida.

(If you avoid my lips,
if you distance yourself from my life,
don't forget that of this love,
you will be honored.)

Ay Carmentea cuando estés bajo la luna,
recuerda quien te quiere como a ninguna.
Ay Carmentea cuando estés bajo la luna,
recuerda quien te quiere como a ninguna.

(Oh, Carmentea when you look at the moon,
remember who loves you like no other.)

Si en tus noches de desvelo
al gallo escuchas cantar,
recuérdalo Carmentea,
que hiciste mi alma llorar.

(If, in your late nights,
you hear the rooster crow,
remember, Carmentea,
that you made my soul cry (for you).)

Ojazos negros que matan cuando me miras,
Ay! Carmentea mi pecho por ti suspira.
Ojazos negros que matan cuando me miras,
Ay! Carmentea mi pecho por ti suspira.

(Big black eyes that kill me with your look,
Oh, Carmentea, mi heart longs for you.)

Tu cuerpo de palma real,
tus labios de corocora,
y esos cabellos tan negros
de que mi alma se enamora.

(Your body like a royal palm,
your lips like a scarlet ibis,
and your hair so black
that my soul has fallen in love with.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-QB5xN7NsA (Interpreted by Luis Ariel Rey)
Composed by Miguel Angel Martín ca. 1955 (A photo: http://www.llanomio.com/miguel-angel-martin-salazar/)

This song is also know as the unofficial anthem of the Eastern Plains of Colombia

Like Alma LLanera, it is a joropo.

Here is how joropo is danced in traditional dress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6CeeRDntJk

The contestants are mostly amateurs in dance contests held usually once a year in different towns.

Carmentea was Carmen Teresa Aguirre, born in Arauca in 1930 and died there in 1992.

Some history and a photograph (in Spanish): http://cuentaelabuelo.blogspot.com/2...carmentea.html

If you are interested in Colombian music, here is some light reading (in English): http://skemman.is/stream/get/1946/59...Lokarigerd.pdf
It is a Master's Thesis by Andrés Ramón at the Iceland Academy of the Arts.

atyy

Is "bambuco" a dance like "joropo"?