María Guinand conducts the JCA Youth Choir (Se equivocó la paloma) - VIDEO

María Guinand conducts the Japan Choral Association Youth Choir in this astonishing concert performed on 14 March 2015 in the Hamarikyu Asashi Hall in Tokyo, Japan.

Carlos Guastavino was a prolific songwriter, and composed mainly for solo voice and choir, and this is why he was named ‘the Schubert of the pampas’. Among his broad catalogue of ‘a capella’ choral works, there are little treasures such as Se equivocó la paloma (1941) on a poem by Rafael Alberti.

Se equivocó la paloma

Poem: Rafael Alberti
Music: Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000)

Lyrics

Se equivocó la paloma, se equivocaba.
Por ir al norte fue al sur
creyó que el trigo era agua, se equivocaba.
Creyó que el mar era el cielo,
que la noche la mañana.
Se equivocaba.
Que las estrellas rocío,
que la calor su casa.
Se equivocaba.
Que tu falda era tu blusa,
que tu corazón su casa.
Se equivocaba.
Ella se durmió en la orilla,
Tú, en la cumbre de una rama.
Se equivocaba.

Translation:

The dove erred, she was making mistakes.
by going north, she went south
she believed that the wheat was water.
She was making mistakes.
She believed that the sea was the sky
and that the night was the morning.
She was mistaken.
That the stars were the evening dew
that the heat was the snowfall.
She was mistaken.
That your skirt was your blouse
and that your heart was her house.
she was making mistakes.
She fell asleep on the shore,
you, on the top of a branch.
She was mistaken.