In regards to the meaning of this song:
Before a live performance on the EP Five Stories Falling, Geoff states “It’s about the last time I went to visit my grandmother in Columbus, and I saw that she was dying and it was the last time I was going to see her. It is about realizing how young you are, but how quickly you can go.”
That’s the thing about Geoff and his sublime poetry, you think it’s about one thing, but really it’s about something entirely different. But the lyrics are still universal and omnipresent, ubiquitous, even. So relatable. That’s one thing I love about this band. I also love their live performances, raw energy and Geoff’s beautiful, imperfectly perfect vocals. His voice soothes my aching soul.
Pintor nacido en mi tierra
Con el pincel extranjero
Pintor que sigues el rumbo
De tantos pintores viejos
Aunque la Virgen sea blanca
Píntame angelitos negros
Que también se van al cielo
Todos los negritos buenos
Pintor, si pintas con amor
Por que desprecias su color
Si sabes que en el cielo
También los quiere Dios
Pintor de santos de alcoba
Si tienes alma en el cuerpo
Porque al pintar en tus cuadros
Te olvidaste de los negros
Siempre que pintas iglesias
Pintas angelitos bellos
Pero nunca te acordaste
De pintar un ángel negro
Pintor de santos de alcoba
Si tienes alma en el cuerpo
Por que al pintar en tus cuadros
Te olvidaste de los negros
Siempre que pintas iglesias
Pintas angelitos bellos
Pero nunca te acordaste
De pintar un ángel negro
Con el pincel extranjero
Pintor que sigues el rumbo
De tantos pintores viejos
Aunque la Virgen sea blanca
Píntame angelitos negros
Que también se van al cielo
Todos los negritos buenos
Pintor, si pintas con amor
Por que desprecias su color
Si sabes que en el cielo
También los quiere Dios
Pintor de santos de alcoba
Si tienes alma en el cuerpo
Porque al pintar en tus cuadros
Te olvidaste de los negros
Siempre que pintas iglesias
Pintas angelitos bellos
Pero nunca te acordaste
De pintar un ángel negro
Pintor de santos de alcoba
Si tienes alma en el cuerpo
Por que al pintar en tus cuadros
Te olvidaste de los negros
Siempre que pintas iglesias
Pintas angelitos bellos
Pero nunca te acordaste
De pintar un ángel negro
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This is such a beautiful song, does anyone have a translation?
google can translate it ; )
I'm mexican, so I know this song.
This is a mexican song, theme for the movie from the same name: Angelitos Negros, from 1948, an adaptation to the novel "Imitation of Life", about a white racist woman giving birth to a black girl, his husband is white, but she blames him for it, guessing he has some black blood on his veins, 'cause he is a strong supporter for the black people. She rejects her daughter for several years, and in some fury instant, mixed with some kind of insanity for not comprehending why this happens to her, she struggles with her maid who's defending the little girl, a black woman who has been with the family for many, many time, and who was very appreciated by the father of the little black girl, who in fact has always known the truth. When they struggle, the maid falls by the stairs, and is then when her husband screams the truth: the black maid is her mother. When she knows the truth it's too late, cause the maid dies because of the fall The maid gave her daughter to the family she worked for, who cared very much for her, so she cuold have a better life than living with her mother, a black - poor rejected because of her color - woman. She was born from an adventure from a white guy who simply wanted to have sex whith her and abandonned after knowing she's pregnant.
The translation is:
Tittle: Little Black Angels
Painter born in my land, with the foreign brush, painter who keeps the course, of so many ancient painters.
Even the Virgin is white, paint her little black angels, that also go tho heaven, all the good little blacks.
Painter if you paint with love, why reject their color? If you know in heaven, God loves them too.
Bedroom saints painter, if you have a soul in your body, why when painting your canvas, you forgot the black ones.
Everytime you paint churches, you paint beautyfull little angels, but you never remembered, to paint a black angel.
Lyrics: A.Eloy Blanco Music: M. Alvarez Maciste
The father of the little black girl sang it to her one day she was very sad because of being rejeted by her mother, and she had painted her face with white makeup, so her mother could accept her.
By the way, this movie is one of the so many ones performed by Pedro Infante, probably the most popular mexican actor from the so called "golden age of mexican cinema", that had place in the 40's.
Hi, It`s actually a VENEZUELAN poem from Andres Eloy Blanco (venezuelan poet)
I am cross-posting my comments from: lyricstranslate.com/en/angelitos-negros-black-little-angels.html
The song is by Manuel Álvarez (Maciste), as adapted from a poem by Andrés Eloy Blanco. The original longer poem is here: cancioneros.com/nc/13547/0/angelitos-negros-andres-eloy-blanco-popular-venezolana
The Maciste version is here: note its original punctuation: cancioneros.com/nc/4562/0/angelitos-negros-andres-eloy-blanco-manuel-alvarez-maciste (avoid the automatic translation!)
An Eartha Kitt YouTube in English here: youtube.com/watch — an amazing live performance.
Her equally good Spanish version is also on YouTube with stills, e.g. youtube.com/watch
Also, an Esperanto Karaoke YouTube is here: youtube.com/watch
PS: For additional comments about this song, see songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107858705529/
Update 2015-12-04: There is an even better Esperanto version by singer-translater Emmanuel Rovere: youtube.com/watch
There is also a YouTube of Eartha Kitt's 1953 version, with its [Spanish] lyrics included as subtitles: youtube.com/watch
A reading (by Antonio Rodriguez Muñoz) of the longer Andrés Eloy Blanco poem, with text-pages, is here: youtube.com/watch
@esperanto41 <br /> <br /> Is there an "edit" button for comments? My HTML got mangled here, but I could not delete it and start over; so then I tried to edit the page, and this comment ended up at the top, where I did not intend to put it.