Sur

SUR

South (1948)

LYRICS by: Homero Manzi

MUSIC by: Anibal Troilo

TRANSLATION by: Alberto Paz

Last updated on: 8/13/12

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Sing along with EDMUNDO RIVERO with ANIBAL TROILO

The corner of San Juan and Boedo Avenues, is an intersection made famous by Homero Manzi in his tango Sur. An act of Congress in 1995 that declared the bar at that location an area of historical Interest. That is why the exterior of the building has been preserved as is. In 2000 the bar was renamed Homero Manzi. The lyrics of the tango evoke the younger years of Homero Manzi first living with his parents near San Juan and Boedo and later being a pupil at a school in the neighborhood of Pompeya. With his verses, Manzi links the two neighborhood in a romantic image of a time that is part of his memories.

CASTELLANO

ENGLISH

San Juan y Boedo antigua y todo el cielo, Pompeya y, mas alla, la inundacion, tu melena de novia en el recuerdo, y tu nombre flotando en el adios… La esquina del herrero barro y pampa, tu casa, tu vereda y el zanjon y un perfume de yuyos y de alfalfa que me llena de nuevo el corazon. Sur… paredon y despues… Sur… una luz de almacen… Ya nunca me veras como me vieras, recostado en la vidriera y esperandote, ya nunca alumbrare con las estrellas nuestra marcha sin querellas por las noches de Pompeya. Las calles y las lunas suburbanas y mi amor en tu ventana todo ha muerto, ya lo se. San Juan y Boedo antigua, cielo perdido, Pompeya y, al llegar al terraplen, tus veinte años temblando de cariño bajo el beso que entonces te robe. Nostalgia de las cosas que han pasado, arena que la vida se llevo, pesadumbte del barrio que ha cambiado y amargura del sueño que murio.

Old San Juan and Boedo street corner, the whole sky Pompeya and farther down, the floods Your bride’s loose hair in my memory and your name floating in the farewell The blacksmith’s corner, mud and pampa, your house, your sidewalk, and the deep ditch and a scent of weeds and of alfalfa that fills my heart all over again. South, a large wall and then… South, a light from a general store… You’ll never see me again, like you saw me, reclined on the glass window and waiting for you. I’ll never illuminate with the stars our walk without quarrels on the evenings of Pompeya… The streets and the suburban moons, and my love on your window, all is dead, I know it… Old San Juan and Boedo street corner, lost sky, Pompeya and reaching the embankment, your twenty years trembling with affection under the kiss I then stole from you. Nostalgia of things that have past, sand that life swept away, sorrow of the barrio that have changed, and bitterness of a dream that died.

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