Que me quiten lo bailado
There is a saying in Spainish that says: Que me quiten lo bailado.
Only for curiosity, is there someone who dares to translate it into English?
I suspect it can be a bit difficult, but..... here you are. Thank you.
12 Answers
Nila this answer may not be what you wanted, I read your question too fast and thought we were to try to translate it into english; hopefully what I have found is interesting to somebody anyway. There's quite a bit of discussion about this on the web in spanish, I've read and tried to understand some of it lol.
'Let them take out from me all the times I've danced.' is the literal translation. I think it has a similar meaning to 'Carpe Diem' which we translate as 'seize the day', meaning 'enjoy yourself while you can'
One writer said - “Que me quiten lo bailao” significa, literalmente, que lo que ya has bailado, no te lo pueden quitar. Utilizar esta frase es una manera de aprontarse con optimismo ante la adversidad, por grande que esta sea' ` - that seems to me to be saying more than just 'enjoy yourself while you can', it seems to add on a feeling of 'although life can be hard'? or maybe that is already contained in 'Carpe Diem' and I haven't used it correctly. ;P
It's worth looking up on Youtube by the way!!!
"Que me quiten lo bailado," both the expression in general and as used in the recent song performed by L. Pérez means pretty much the same thing as the expression, "They Can't Take That Away From Me," in the famous song by George and Ira Gershwin. The sentiment of the Spanish idiom also resembles the sentiment of Rick in "Casablanca," when he tells Ilsa, "We'll always have Paris."
"Que me quiten," enlists the imperative of "quitar," which means to take away or remove. In the imperative mood, that part of the phrase means "let them take away," but as a dare--"let them try to take away." "Lo bailado," means literally "what is danced." This part of the phrase is a metaphor, a figurative way of referring to the good, happy, or enjoyable events in your life and your memory of those events. No one can take those away from you. You will always have them.
The implied character of the Gershwin song, if lamenting a lost love, still treasures memories of a lover (her looks, her words, her actions), memories no one can take away. Rick urges Ilsa, in their mutual heartbreak, to find comfort, as he seems to do, in the memory of their love affair in Paris.
The Pérez song (not on a par with Gershwin's masterpiece or with sentiments in Casablanca) looks to the future rather than the past. It insists that no one can take away the implied character's happy memories and happy moments ("lo bailado," or the figurative dances she has already danced), happy memories and happy moments that will lead her to view her life always in a positive, happy light.
Wow. it is so interesting to hear how others interprate this!
FOr me it has always been this defiant proclamation - like to elaborate: you can take away my money, you can take away my house, you can hurt me the best you can, but you will never be able to take away the beautful moments of my past. you cant take away what i have danced.
I have thought of it as a way of embracing the life that is not material.The thing that matter most are not objects. perhaps it is vaguely in the spirit of "freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose"
wow, sound like such a hippy! haha.
If you want to dance you have to pay the fiddler - qfreed
Interesting, Quentin, but I would understand this as:
If you want to enjoy yourself, you have to do something to achieve this goal.
No se me ocurre nada parecido en español.
Oh, the blog you have added is very nice, another expression:
a vivir, que son dos días,
this is very similar to the above.
que me quiten lo bailao (spelled differently, but explained why)
Yes, you are right. "Que me quiten lo bailao" is the same as "enjoy yourself while you can".
But as the sentence is in first person, one could say: I have already enjoyed myself while I have been able. Now, who can snatch it from me?.
There must be an English equivalent for this expression, but I don't know it.
Literally means "Let them to take me off all what i have danced". It means, you can stop me now but while you didn't I had time to do a lot of things, and I'm happy for that.
Que me quiten lo bailao! It means that I don't care about the consecuences if I had great time! Imagine, per instance, you had a great time last night and today you are too tired to do something very importa, like an exam. But, the great time you had was so worthed that you don't care if you don't pass it.
I think it is kind of like when we say "and no one can take that away from me" because it is about something you have achieved or experienced and you are saying that it will always be with you.
Or maybe it is like saying "I'll never forget this" or even "beat that!" if you mean that no one can ever surpass what you have done. I guess there are a few ways of translating it in English but none are exactly the same as the Spanish. Every language has phrases that can't be truly translated but can only come close enough.
I hope this was helpful though.
This expression is also one of my favorites, because it is synonymous with fun and enjoy life ... but then recover costs us ... 
Let me take away what bailao (bailao = dance, dance participaiting) is used when you get to work one morning, I cast dust, after having hardly slept at all, with a very big hangover the BIG PARTY you hit yourself with the night before . So you say, look, today I am very bad, but remove away this bailao, meaning that you are worth the suffering that you are spending today by not sleeping for having been partying.
So for what it's worth, to enjoy life and, although I have to recommend you to be responsible, if ever you find yourself badly after being out till late in the morning enjoying yourself without getting any sleep arriving at work in the morning asking for all to be gentle with you, asking them.....help me with my hangover= que se me quitan el bailado.
Let them try and take away what I have enjoyed!
The closest English expression is " you can dance all night but someone has to pay the piper"
