Hi friends, I'm translating some of the lyrics to this bop, "Not the Future." I have a lot of questions about certain aspects of it, which I will insert in an appendix section at the end of the post. For now, enjoy this bop!

Diacritics bank: áéíóú ÁÉÍÓÚ üñ ¿¡

Lyrics

C-3PO

I think it’s about time that I walk away, walk away

So I turn around to walk away but then I look back

Sad lady make me turn and walk away again

Creo que ya es tiempo para irme, irme

Doy una vuelta para irme pero miro atrás

La triste mujer me hace dar otra vuelta y continuar a irme (1)

Narrador

Even though it looks like it’s the future

It’s really a long, long, time ago

When there were knights

And they got into fights ssing sabers of light

Please remember

Even though some things look so familiar

They’re not really on Earth

Yeah, it’s a galaxy far, far away

Alien DNA walking ‘round every day

And no one notices

Aunque parece como si fuera el futuro (2)

Realmente pasó hace mucho, mucho tiempo

En donde (3) habían caballeros

Y se metieron en combates usando sables de luz

Por favor recuerda que

Aunque las cosas parecen tan familiares

Realmente no están en la Tierra

Si, es una galaxia muy, muy lejos/lejano

Con ADN extraterrestre caminando todos los días/diariamente

Y nadie lo nota

It’s a place where

Little furry creatures dance but they’re not teddy bears

They’re an alien equivalent

And they may rage in familiar trees

But it’s not the Redwoods you see

Alien trees on an alien moon, oh-oh

It’s something else indeed

Alien trees on an alien moon, oh-oh

Es un lugar donde/en donde

Pequeñas criaturas peludas bailan pero no son ositos de peluche

Son de un equivalente extraterrestre

Y aunque ardan de ira en árboles familiares

No son los Redwoods (4), ¿ves?

Son árboles ajenos en una luna ajena (5)

Es algo distinto, cierto

Son árboles ajenos en una luna ajena

C-3PO

Time to break it down, break it down, down, down, down

Es tiempo para moverse, moverse!

Luke Skywalker

Yeah, I was big in Japan

I was king of Ping Pong

Yeah I was bad at tuba

And I’m sure you’d like me to bounce

Sometimes that moment when you wish you could run and hide

Is when you find you need a new hyperdrive

We all sometimes wish we could get away

And if you try

Then you gotta just make sure if you hide in a cave that it’s

Really not some giant space snake

Si, era muy popular en Japon,

Era el rey del ping pong

Y era mal en/al tocar el tuba

Y estoy casi seguro de que te gustaría que me largue

A veces ese momento cuando/en que quieres correr y esconderte

Es cuando necesitas un nuevo hipermotor

A veces todos tenemos ganas de escapar

Y si lo intentas

Pues solo tienes que verificar que si estás escondiéndote en una laguna,

Que la laguna no sea en realidad el cuerpo de un serpiente gigante extraterrestre

Notes

(1) This line sounds really unnatural and clunky to me since "walk away" doesn't exist in Spanish, to my knowledge.

(2) The original line says "even though it looks like it's", clearly using the subjunctive, which is why I translated it to "como si fuera." However, I've also seen "parecer a" and "parecer como." Are these interchangeable at all? Which of these phrasesmake sense? "Aunque parece el futuro," "anque parece al futuro," "aunque parece como el futuro."

(3) Not sure when "donde" and "en donde" are correct. The reason is because in English we have "in which," but "in where" doesn't exist.

(4) This stanza talks about how things look familiar but they're not earthly. Thus, I wanted to keep "Redwoods" recognizable as a region in California. I don't know if that region or the national park that was named after it has a Spanish naming equivalent, so I kept it in English.

(5) The original line says "alien trees on an alien moon." Sometimes "alien" doesn't just refer to outer space; sometimes it can mean something extremely different from your current knowledge base/experience. That's why I didn't use the word "extraterrestre."