The song tells the story of a woman, who prays an entire night to the Moon for a husband. In the end, the moon says that she shall have her man, but in return she wants her first-born child to be turned over to her.
When the child is born, it turns out that its skin colour does not resemble the father's. The man automatically assumes that his wife committed adultery, and kills her with a knife. Afterwards, he carries the infant onto the top of a mountain, where he abandons the child. In doing that he fulfils the moon's will.
The child is taken up into the sky by the moon, and on nights when the moon is full, it is because the child is happy, and when the child cries, the moon will wane to make him a cradle.
The chorus throughout the song says that the moon wants to be a mother, yet cannot find a lover who will make her a woman, and questions her as to what she would do with a human child.
The song also criticises the mother: asking how much someone can love a child, but be willing to sacrifice it to have a partner.
The reaction of the father is in the sight of the listener to think of. His pride and impulsive nature make him kill the one who loves him dearly, and leads him to please his enemy.
The song can be read as a myth that explains the phases of the moon. At the end it says that the moon changes according to the child's mood. An example is becoming a cot when the child is asleep meaning when the moon is about the enter the new moon phase. - Lyrics in Spanish and an Englsh attempt at translation below the videos...
Mecano - Hijo de la Luna
DE#45 (1989), NL#3 (1990), FR#6 (1991)
A number of cover versions exist, a selection of them below:
- 1991: Eleni Dimou, Greek singer, in her album 'Mia zoi then ftanei' (One lifetime is not enough), as 'Peftei to Feggari' (The Moon is Falling)
- 1992: Tuula Amberla, a Finnish singer, on the album 'Kuun poika'
- 1994: Montserrat Caballé
- 1998: Loona
DE#1, CH#2, AT#3
- 2000: Sarah Brightman
- 2001: Ivana Jordan, a Serbian singer
- 2001: Valensia (2001)
- 2002: Belle Pérez and Voice Male
- 2003: Monserrat Bustamante
- 2003: Mors Principium Est (in the Japanese version of Inhumanity)
- 2005: Psy 4 de la Rime
- 2006: Stravaganzza, a Spanish Classical Heavy Metal Group
Mecano-hijo-de-la-luna
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- 2006: Ana Torroja, the former Mecano vocalist on her solo album 'Me Cuesta Tanto Olvidarte'
- 2006: Lyriel, a German Celtic Rock group, on the album 'Autumntales'
- 2008: Haggard, a German symphonic metal band, on the album 'Tales of Ithiria'
- 2008: Katra Solopuro, a Finnish gothic metal singer, on the album 'Beast Within'
- 2008: Highland, a German dance/hip hop project, on the album 'Dimmi Perché'
- 2010: Vicky Leandros on her album 'Zeitlos'
- 2010: Mario Frangoulis, on his album 'Sometimes I Dream'
- 2011: Theatres des Vampires, an Italian gothic metal group, on the album 'Moonlight Waltz'
Stefanie Krämer - Hijo de la Luna
Lyrics in Spanish:
Tonto el que no entienda.
Cuenta una leyenda
Que una hembra gitana
Conjuró a la luna
Hasta el amanecer.
Llorando pedía
Al llegar el día
Desposar un calé.
'Tendrás a tu hombre,
Piel morena',
Desde el cielo
Habló la luna llena.
'Pero a cambio quiero
El hijo primero
Que le engendres a él.
Que quien su hijo inmola
Para no estar sola
Poco le iba a querer'.
Luna quieres ser madre
Y no encuentras querer
Que te haga mujer.
Dime, luna de plata,
Qué pretendes hacer
Con un niño de piel.
A-ha-ha, a-ha-ha,
Hijo de la luna.
De padre canela
Nació un niño
Blanco como el lomo
De un armiño,
Con los ojos grises
En vez de aceituna --
Niño albino de luna.
'¡Maldita su estampa!
Este hijo es de un payo
Y yo no me lo callo'.
Gitano al creerse deshonrado,
Se fue a su mujer,
Cuchillo en mano.
'¿De quien es el hijo?
Me has engañado fijo'.
Y de muerte la hirió.
Luego se hizo al monte
Con el niño en brazos
Y allí le abandono.
Y en las noches
Que haya luna llena
Será porque el niño
Esté de buenas.
Y si el niño llora
Menguará la luna
Para hacerle una cuna.
Y si el niño llora
Menguará la luna
Para hacerle una cuna.
English translation
Foolish who doesn't understand
Tells a legend
That a gypsy woman
Conjured to the moon
until sunrise
Crying she was asking
Coming the day
To marry a gypsy man
You you have your
man of dark skin
From heaven spoke the full moon
But in return I want
The first son
That you beget from him
Whoever sacrifices his son
Not to be alone
Would barely love him
Moon wants to be mother
And you don't find a lover
Who can make you woman
Tell me silver moon
what do you expect to do
with a kid of skin
Son of the moon
From a cinnamon father
a boy was born
White as the back of an ermine
With the eyes grey
Instead of olive
Albino boy of moon
Damn his stamp
This son is from a non-gipsy
And I won't shut up
Gypsy man believing
himself dishonored
Went to his woman knife in hand
Who's son is this?
You've cheated on
me permanently
And he hurted her to dead
Then he went to the mount
With the kid in his arms
And he abandoned him there
And in the nights
with full moon
It will be because
the kid is in a good mood
Aand if the boy cries
The moon will lessen
To make him a cradle
And if the boy cries
The moon will lessen
To make him a cradle
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