Envejecer: the question of the two old folks holding hands

Can you picture the two of us as old folks, holding hands? It's one of the loveliest questions you can be asked in a relationship. And it's the centre of Envejecer (Growing Old), a song that turns it into something very bitter, because whoever was asking it, according to the lyrics, was cheating at the same time.

The form of the lyric seems very expressive to me. Many sentences are broken up word by word, one per line: why, did, you, ask. Like that, taken apart. It's like speaking between sobs, when whole sentences won't come and every word is an effort. And then, by contrast, vowels stretched out to infinity: never again, so sad. Pain sometimes runs out of words and other times doesn't know when to stop.

A late answer

The moment that touches me most comes near the end. After repeating the question again and again, the song finally answers it. It comes late, it admits, but it answers: yes, I pictured it. And it adds that he was sure they were going to grow old together. That untimely confession seems to me one of the most honest things in the project. There's no anger there, just pure sorrow.

The other axis of the lyric is mistrust. I'm never going to trust anyone again, never again. It's an idea that appears in other PLANETA GAYFOLK songs, like an oath repeated every time something breaks. Here it sounds especially fragile, because it comes right after admitting how much he believed in the shared future.

There are break-up songs that make you dance and others that make you laugh. This one leaves you still. It's for listening to sitting down, perhaps with a photo in your hand, perhaps without.

I'd dedicate it to anyone who made plans for old age with someone who wasn't thinking the same. To anyone who still keeps the image of two wrinkled hands intertwined, even if they no longer know what to do with it.

And also to anyone who still has it ahead of them. So they ask sincerely and answer in time.

The full lyrics are below. Listen on Spotify