Catalejo
Manuel García Lyrics

The song "Catalejo" by Manuel García paints a vivid picture of a kind of emotional and spiritual journey. The first verse begins with the image of being in darkness, but with the memory of an explosive burst of light that sent flowers and kisses flying towards someone. The second half of the verse finds the singer watching their lover's breathing like the rhythm of an invisible and violent sea, which is breaking these same flowers and kisses. The second verse details their insomnia, and how their lover seems to be dying in their sleep. The chorus serves as a kind of refrain, repeating the images of afternoons, rains, trips, flowers, and boats that the singer brought light to with song.

The final verse marks a major shift in the song. The singer arrives at a certain place, presumably metaphorical, and then turns back around to see their lover's skin, salt, eyes, and mouths extinguished into the place they left. Here the imagery is that of a glass eyepiece, a telescope, which they are using to survey the scene. The chorus repeats again, and at the end of the song, there is a sense of returning to a place of mystery and darkness, but also perhaps of newfound understanding.

Overall, "Catalejo" can be read as a meditation on loss, memory, and the ways in which the past can survive and re-emerge despite our attempts to bury it. The lyrics are beautifully poetic, rich with sensory detail, and the song's melody and arrangement perfectly capture the mood of solemn, melancholy introspection.