What does “quisiera haber” mean in Spanish?

quisiera is the imperfect subjunctive of querer, and it softens “I want” into a wistful “I wish” or “I’d like.” Pair it with haber + a past participle and you get the elegant frame for regret: quisiera haber + [participle] = “I wish I had…”. The lyric quisiera nunca haberte conocido means “I wish I had never met you” — not a plain “I want,” but a longing for a past that can’t be undone.

The pattern is quisiera + haber + participle, and the participle never changes: haberte conocido (“having met you”), haber probado (“having tasted”). Object pronouns clip onto haber: haberte. Compare present versus past: quisiera verte is “I’d like to see you,” while quisiera haberte visto is “I wish I had seen you.” Because quisiera is already softened, the whole phrase lands as gentle, regretful longing rather than blunt demand.