There is a song by Ana Gabriel titled "Hice Bien Quererte." Would that be translated as "I did love you well" or just how should that be translated?
Answer
From KenM618229:
An alternative translation might be: "I did well to love you".
From Dr D:
The song title "Hice Bien Quererte" would be loosely translated more to the tune of (no pun intended), "I did well to love you."
Or perhaps more conversationally speaking, "I picked the right person to love."
How are you familiar with the music of Ana Gabriel? She's not one of what you would call Billboard's hottest stars. I'm impressed.
From PrfMatthew:
You're missing a word in there, I think. Hice bien ... quererte... needs a preposition to make sense. It's probably Hice bien EN quererte , which would mean, " I did well to love you" . Sort of like "It was the right thing to love you."
From Dr D:
Although PrfMathew is correct in pointing to the more common and ALWAYS gramatically correct way of saying "Hice bien EN quererte," as it turns out conversationally speaking to say "Hice bien quererte" in the context of the title of a song is not incorrect and in fact is well understood without further reference to a preposition.
I do not know if "Hice bien quererte" is the ACTUAL title of this particular song, however, there are many examples where EN is dropped both in conversation as well as in writing such as in poems lyrics, and titles of songs.
As a matter of fact in virtually all languages the use of common conversational phrases or idioms is acceptable and in fact necessary in order to convey the proper feeling or mood of the work. To make song titles or lyrics completely grammatical in structure would take most of the songs on Billboard's Top 100 and drive them into oblivion.
From PrfMatthew:
I've got nothing against idioms, Dr. D; it's just that the phrase "hice bien quererte" was a stretch for me, even idiomatically. I suppose though, with a little imagination and poetic license, it could well be the correct song title.
My criterion was not some proscriptive grammatical rule, however. It's more like how it sounds - como me suena. Y en este caso no me sonaba nada bien.
