"No tengo mas que darte pero mi corazon"
My friend just got a tattoo that says "No tengo mas que darte pero mi corazon" which supposedly translates to "I have nothing left to give you but my heart". I was just wondering if this was the grammatically correct way to say this. She says she thinks to be grammatically correct it should say "No tengo mas que darte que mi corazon". I typed both of them in to Google Translator, which says that the first way, when translated from Spanish to English, is correct. Thanks!
9 Answers
Hopefully, it is correct as written, but after a little research, I'm thinking it would be better as...
No tengo nada más para darte salvo mi corazón.
Or, perhaps...
No tengo nada más que darte salvo mi corazón.
But I could be wrong.
I don't know if pero (but) can even be used that way (in the sense of salvo and excepto)...but, if it can, I think it would be rare. I've never heard or seen it used that way. I've usually seen pero used to connect two separate sentences so they become one, but my exposure to Spanish has been fairly limited.
You don't think "nada más" changes the meaning from "I don't have more to give to you" to "I don't have anything more to give you"? - jeezzle .... I don't have the answer, jeezle. I recommend you start a thread about it. It's a good question. - webdunce
I think there's merit to this argument, because Jeezle's comment made me think that perhaps we haven't hit upon the most accurate translation yet.
The original says: "I have nothing left to give you but my heart"
Webdunce gave the best translation as: "No tengo nada más que darte salvo mi corazón."
I like the way that sounds, and it was my pick for best answer too. The thing that bother's me is not so much the "nada más"; which I think works ok, but the fact that maybe we're missing a detail by not addressing the "left" in the original. So to be absolutely accurate, we should be saying something along the lines of : "No me queda nada para darte sino mi corazón". A bit awkward, but that's just what the original English sentence says.
Meanwhile, I can't help but notice that Kris said that this friend already has the tattoo, so Richard's comment about the corrections brought a vivid image to my mind (and yes, I too can fully visualize Heidita using red ink):
I have nothing helpful to add, except I have this wonderful image of you all crowding around this person with tattoo needles crossing things out and making corrections. Heidita is using red ink, of course 
No tengo más que darte, sólo mí corazon. That's what I would say. Of course I could be wrong.
If I'm not mistaken this comes from a very old engraving found on a lovers ring that was on a Spanish galleon. The ship sank in 1588 off the coast of Ireland. See this site for more info regarding this: http://thedragonbox.blogspot.com/2008/08/no-tengo-mas-que-dar-te_22.html
Pero cannot be used here!
If anything I would say-
No tengo más para darte sino mi corazón.
or
No tengo más sino mi corazón para darte.
The one that Gekkosan said sounded odd - "no me queda nada..." sounds good. I would just make a small change-
No me queda más para darte sino mi corazón.
or
No me queda más sino mi corazón para darte.
Yup, it's moot at this moment in time. All water under the bridge... Todo eso ya ha pasado a la historia....
That's a fine translation.
Someone will answer this. Look at the translators like a sketch or rough draft to be refined at a later date
