Se Quiere, Se Mata Lyrics in English Shakira

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Below, I translated the lyrics of the song Se Quiere, Se Mata by Shakira from Spanish to English.

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Verse 1

Braulio has big eyes and dark hair

He never overeats and never sleeps naked

He always dresses in gray, since there's no remedy

He has the tendency to always look for the middle ground

Dana is a good girl, that's what her parents say

She never gets home after ten, nor very late

Braulio and Dana love each other like any couple

But one day they were prey to nature

Chorus 1

And to their own instincts

They didn't escape luckily

With fire inside

And hormones present

By the law of the magnet

Their bodies came closer

But if at tea time nothing happens

You'll just go far from home

For having brought one more inhabitant

To enter this rotten city

Where what isn't wanted is killed, it's killed

Verse 2

That day you arrived a little past ten

But the scare came a few weeks later

When they confirmed your terrible suspicions

A child would be born and you already knew the date

Chorus 2

And before the neighbor and the family found out

You went to the doctor to end the problem

Today your neighbor is at home taking a good shower

And you, two meters underground, watching worms grow

But if at tea time nothing happens

You'll just go far from home

For having brought one more inhabitant

To enter this rotten city

Where what isn't wanted is killed, it's killed

But if at tea time nothing happens

You'll just go far from home

For having brought one more inhabitant

To enter this rotten city

Where what isn't wanted is killed, it's killed

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Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

Shakira Mebarak, Luis Fernando Ochoa

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SONG MEANING

Picture two straight-laced teens, Braulio and Dana: perfect grades, early curfews, tidy reputations. One night curiosity wins over caution, biology sparks, and Dana becomes pregnant. Terrified of gossip in their "podrida ciudad" – a rotten, judgmental society – the couple chooses a secret abortion. The procedure goes wrong; Dana dies, Braulio keeps living, and life in the neighborhood carries on as if nothing happened. The chilling refrain "Donde lo que no se quiere se mata" (“what isn’t wanted gets killed”) hammers home the song’s critique of rigid moral façades that value appearances more than human life.

With storytelling that feels like a mini-telenovela, Shakira exposes how social pressure, shame, and hypocrisy can push ordinary people toward tragic decisions. The track mixes catchy Latin pop with a stark message: when a community is ruled by judgment instead of compassion, its most vulnerable members pay the price. It is both a cautionary tale and a call to question the silent rules that decide who, or what, is allowed to exist.

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Shakira Se Quiere, Se Mata Lyrics