I spy with my little eye

Veo, veo

Veo, veo   I see, I see
¿Qué ves?  What do you see?
Una cosita   A little thing
¿Y qué cosita es?   And what little thing is it?
Empieza con la ´a´   It starts with the letter ´a´
¿Qué será? ¿Qué será? ¿Qué será?    What will it be?

¡Alefante!
No, no, no,
Eso no, no, no   Not that
Eso no, no, no
no es así   That´s not right (literally ´it´s not like this. That´s not the way it is´)
Con la ´a´ se escribe amor,    With the ´a´ you write ´amor´
con la ´a´ se escribe adiós,
la alegría de la vida
y un montón de cosas más.   and a whole lot of other things besides (literally ´many things more´)

Veo, veo ...



This is a well known song in Spain, somewhat equivalent to the English 'I spy with my little eye'. It is particularly interesting as a way to present the five Spanish vowels ' a, e, i, o, u '.

The song is repeated for every vowel, changing the ending of the question ´¿qué será?´ just to match each vowel:
¿Qué seré?  for e
¿Qué serí?  for i
¿Qué seró? for o
¿Qué serú? for u

And also ´¿qué seraf?´ for f of ´final´ (end).

Each time we get the wrong answer, with an incorrectly spelt word:

alefante instead of elefante
eyuntamiento instead of ayuntamiento
invidia instead of envidia
oscuela instead of escuela
umbligo instead of ombligo (belly button)

It was largely popularised by Spanish children entertainer Teresa Rabal, whom we can see here in the 1982 film ´Loca por el Circo´. It might not be Oscar material but the song performed by Rabal still has that indelible trace of nostalgia that we associate with established cultural memorabilia of a generation's childhood:

And here is a new version with colourful pictures and written words: