Ya No Te Puedo Amar Lyrics in English by Grupo Gale
Despreciaste comes from despreciar, meaning to scorn, reject, or fail to appreciate someone. In the song, the singer tells his former lover, "Mientras tuviste, despreciaste" ("When you had me, you treated me with contempt"), expressing how she only valued him after losing him.
The word is especially useful for learners because its ending -aste clearly marks the informal tú form in the simple past. It also conveys a stronger feeling than simply saying "you ignored me," making the breakup sound more dramatic.
In “Ya No Te Puedo Amar” (“I Can’t Love You Anymore”), the singer faces an ex who suddenly comes back, expecting to find him waiting exactly as before. Her return feels far too easy: “Cómo puedes regresar como si nada” [How can you come back as if nothing happened?]. He remembers how long he waited, while she now wants access to his life without “reclamos y sin condiciones” [complaints and without conditions]. The sharpest line is “De tanto estar sin ti, se me olvidó querer” [After being without you for so long, I forgot how to love]. It is not that he never loved her. He says he loved her deeply, but the time apart changed him.
The chorus gives the song its firm answer: “Ya no te puedo amar” [I can’t love you anymore]. He refuses to return to his old life or pretend that the past can simply be erased. “Hoy eres parte de mi pasado” [Today you are part of my past] is simple, final language, while “Soy lo que has hecho de mí” [I am what you have made me] places the blame clearly on the damage her absence caused. The later line “Mientras tuviste, despreciaste; lo sentiste después de perder” [While you had me, you rejected me; you felt it after losing me] sounds like a hard-earned lesson: some mistakes cost so much that an apology cannot bring the relationship back.
