Lyrics of Yo Canto Porque Tengo Vida - Mercedes Sosa

Yo Canto Porque Tengo Vida (original)

Fue cantante como oltros profetas
O tenderos de una calle gris
Y vendia muy bien sus canciones
Con promesas de un mundo feliz
Y cantaba con honestidad
Y tocaba con sinceridad
Y por eso a la gente del pueblo
Le gustaba escucharlo cantar
Mas enctonces le impuso ese amor
Una duda tan fuerte y atroz
Que contraria a su buen corazon
Puso en el una contradicion
Una nube manchando su cielo
Su coraje y su sinceridad
Descubrio que cantar es terrible
Si se piensa en vender nada mas
Yo canto porque tengo vida
Y no para agradarle a usted!
Yo canto porque tengo vida
Y munca a pedido de usted!
Yo canto porque tengo vida!
Hubo muchos que bien se ganaron
Con canciones, su techo y su pan
Mas de pronto las musas se fueron
Y no habran de cantar nunca mas
Las muchachas dejaron de amar
Los poemas del viejo cantor
Y le ha sido robado aquel sol
Que el sozaba desde su cancion
Y asi fue que ya muerto el cantante
Otro nuevo subio al pedestal
Y vendia mejor pues sabia
Donde estaban las musas y el sol
Mas de lejos se escucha una voz
Temblorosa intentando volver
El derecho la impulsa a cantar
La razon y una nueva verdad
Yo canto porque tengo vida
Y no para agradarle a usted!
Yo canto porque tengo vida
Y nunca a pedido de usted!
Yo canto porque tengo vida
Y no por temor a morir!
Yo canto porque tengo vida
Y a nadie, a nadie, a nadie yo protegere!
Yo canto porque tengo vida!

(translation)

He was a singer like other prophets
Or shopkeepers of a gray street
And she sold her songs very well
With promises of a brave new world
And she sang honestly
And she played with sincerity
And that's why the townspeople
She liked to hear him sing
But then he imposed that love on her
A doubt so strong and atrocious
That contrary to his good heart
She put a contradiction in him
A cloud staining your sky
His courage from him and his sincerity
I discovered that singing is terrible
If you think of selling nothing else
I sing because I have life
And not to please you!
I sing because I have life
And never at your request!
I sing because I have life!
There were many who were well earned
With songs, its roof and its bread
But suddenly the muses left
And they will never sing again
The girls stopped loving
The old singer's poems
And that sun has been stolen
That he dreamed from his song
And so it was that the singer was already dead
Another new climbed to the pedestal
And he sold better because he knew
Where were the muses and the sun
Farther away a voice is heard
Shaky trying to get back
The law drives her to sing
The reason and a new truth
I sing because I have life
And not to please you!
I sing because I have life
And never at your request!
I sing because I have life
And not for fear of dying!
I sing because I have life
And no one, no one, no one will I protect!
I sing because I have life!