Spanish Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, teachers, students and Spanish language enthusiasts in general wanting to discuss the finer points of the language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
In the song "Nada fue un error" Coti sings:
Tengo una mala noticia
No fue de casualidad
Yo quería que nos pasara
Y tú, y tú
Lo dejaste pasar
What's the meaning of the verb pasar in the phrases Yo quería que nos pasara and Y tú, y tú lo dejaste pasar?
Does it have the same meaning in both phrases?
All I got searching online and using Google translator are literal translations (both in English and Portuguese - my native language) and I'm not sure if literal translations should be used here.
That's a clever play on words. Pasar means "to happen" and "to pass (by)". In this case, it means the former in one verse and the latter in the next.
Of course the second verse could be interpreted differently, with pasar having the same meaning as in the first. That is, Lo dejaste pasar = "You let it happen". But the tone and theme of the song suggest to me this is isn't the idea. When someone wants something good in love to happen and the other person lets it happen, then usually no song is written about it. Besides, it would be rather clumsy to use the same verb in this way if not for wordplay.
«Yo quería que nos pasara» could be saying that 'I would like that it will pass us.' Or, in more idiomatic English, 'I want this to pass us by.'
«Y tú, y tú lo dejaste pasar» could be saying that 'And you, and you let it pass.'
I think that others more familiar with the song and the subtleties of Spanish have more likely given you a better translation, but I'm reading literally that the singer wanted him and someone else to get over something, and the other person did get over it.
