LA ULTIMA CURDA

The last drunkenness(1956)

LYRICS by: Catulo Castillo

MUSIC by: Anibal Troilo

TRANSLATION by: Alberto Paz

Last updated on: 4/27/13

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Sing along with ROBERTO GOYENECHE with ASTOR PIAZZOLLA

CASTELLANO

ENGLISH

Lastima, bandoneón, mi corazon tu ronca maldición maleva… Tu lágrima de ron me lleva hasta el hondo bajo fondo donde el barro se subleva. ¡Ya sé, no me digás! ¡Tenés razón! La vida es una herida absurda, y es todo tan fugaz que es una curda, ¡nada más! mi confesión. Contame tu condena, decime tu fracaso, ¿no ves la pena que me ha herido? Y hablame simplemente de aquel amor ausente tras un retazo del olvido. ¡Ya sé que te lastimo! ¡Ya se que te hago daño llorando mi sermón de vino! Pero es el viejo amor que tiembla, bandoneón, y busca en el licor que aturde, la curda que al final termine la función corriéndole un telón al corazón. Un poco de recuerdo y sinsabor gotea tu rezongo lerdo. Marea tu licor y arrea la tropilla de la zurda al volcar la última curda. Cerrame el ventanal que arrastra el sol su lento caracol de sueño, ¿no ves que vengo de un país que está de olvido, siempre gris, tras el alcohol?…

Bandoneon, it hurts my heart your hoarse transgressor’s curse… Your tear of rum leads me Into the deep low underground where mud revolts. I know, don’t tell me! You’re right! Life is an absurd wound, and all it’s so fleeting that is drunkenness, nothing else! my confession. Tell me about your sentence, tell me about your failure, Don’t you see the sorrow that has hurt me? And talk to me plainly of that absent love after a piece of forgetfulness. I know I hurt you! I know that I harm you crying my sermon of wine! But it’s the old love that shivers, bandoneon, and looks in the liquor that stuns, the drunkenness that at the end end the show dropping a curtain over the heart. A little memory and distaste your dull grumble drips. Your liquor intoxicates and rustles the herd of the heart into the last drunkenness. Shut the window that the sun drags its slow snail of sleep, Can’t you see I come from a country that’s forgetful, always gray, after alcohol? …

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PERCAL

Percale (1943)

LYRICS by: Homero Expósito

MUSIC by: Domingo Federico

TRANSLATION by: Alberto Paz

Last updated on: 3/7/12

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Sing along with FIORENTINO with ANIBAL TROILO

The percale was the fabric of choice of lower class women and it was a symbol of humility and virtue.

CASTELLANO

ENGLISH

Percal… ¿Te acuerdas del percal? Tenias quince abriles, anhelos de sufrir y amar, de ir al centro, triunfar y olvidar el percal. Percal… Camino del percal, te fuiste de tu casa… Tal vez nos enteramos mal. Solo se que al final te olvidaste el percal. La juventud se fue… Tu casa ya no está… Y en el ayer tirados se han quedado acobardados tu percal y mi pasado. La juventud se fue… Yo ya no espero más… Mejor dejar perdidos los anhelos que no han sido y el vestido de percal. Llorar… ¿Por qué vas a llorar?… ¿Acaso no has vivido, acaso no aprendiste a amar, a sufrir, a esperar, y también a callar? Percal… Son cosas del percal… Saber que estás sufriendo saber que sufrirás aún más y saber que al final no olvidaste el percal. Percal… Tristezas del percal.

Percale … Remember the percale? … You were barely fifteen, longings of suffering and loving, of going downtown, to succeed and forget the percale … Percale … Road of the percale … You left your house Maybe we heard wrong, I only know that at the end You forgot the percale… The youth is gone… Your home isn’t there… And in the past, discarded They’ve remained, cowering Your percale and my past … The youth is gone I no longer wait Best to let be lost The longings that have not been And the percale dress … To cry… Why are you going to cry…? Haven’t you lived, haven’t you learned to love, to suffer, to wait and also to be silent…? Percale … They’re things about the percale … Knowing that you are suffering, Knowing that you’ll suffer even more And knowing that at the end You didn’t forget the percale… Percale … Sadness of the percale …

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Copyright (c) Planet Tango 1998-2012 All Rights Reserved

BARRIO DE TANGO

Neighborhood of tango (1942)

LYRICS by: Homero Manzi

MUSIC by: Anibal Troilo

TRANSLATION by: Alberto Paz

Last updated on: 12/30/11

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Sing along with ROBERTO GOYENECHE with ORQUESTA ANIBAL TROILO

CASTELLANO

ENGLISH

Un pedazo de barrio, allá en Pompeya, durmiéndose al costado del terraplén. Un farol balanceando en la barrera y el misterio de adiós que siembra el tren. Un ladrido de perros a la luna. El amor escondido en un portón. Y los sapos redoblando en la laguna y a lo lejos la voz del bandoneón. Barrio de tango, luna y misterio, calles lejanas, ¡cómo estarán! Viejos amigos que hoy ni recuerdo, ¡qué se habrán hecho, dónde estarán! Barrio de tango, qué fue de aquella, Juana, la rubia, que tanto amé. ¡Sabrá que sufro, pensando en ella, desde la tarde que la dejé! Barrio de tango, luna y misterio, ¡desde el recuerdo te vuelvo a ver! Un coro de silbidos allá en la esquina. El codillo llenando el almacén. Y el dramón de la pálida vecina que ya nunca salió a mirar el tren. Así evoco tus noches, barrio tango, con las chatas entrando al corralón y la luna chapaleando sobre el fango y a lo lejos la voz del bandoneón. Barrio de tango, luna y misterio, calles lejanas, ¡cómo estarán! Viejos amigos que hoy ni recuerdo, ¡qué se habrán hecho, dónde estarán! Barrio de tango, qué fue de aquella, Juana, la rubia, que tanto amé. ¡Sabrá que sufro, pensando en ella, desde la tarde que la dejé! Barrio de tango, luna y misterio, ¡desde el recuerdo te vuelvo a ver!

A piece of the neighborhood, back in Pompeya asleep on the side of the embankment. A lantern swinging in the barrier and the mystery of goodbye that seeds the train . Dogs barking at the moon. Love hiding in a doorway. And stepping frogs in the pond And at the distance the voice of the bandoneon. Neighborhood of tango, moon and mystery distant streets, how they will be! Old friends I don’t even remember now, Whatever happened to them, where they will be! Neighborhood of tango, what happened to that one , Juana, the blonde, I loved so much. Will she know that I suffer, thinking of her, since the afternoon I left her! Neighborhood of tango, moon and mystery From the memory I see you again! A chorus of whistles back in the corner. The card game filling the store. And the melodrama of the pale neighbor that she never came out to watch the train. So I recall your nights, neighborhood tango, with the carts entering the warehouse and the moon wallowing in the mud and at the distance the voice of the bandoneon. Neighborhood of tango, moon and mystery distant streets, how they will be! Old friends I don’t even remember now, Whatever happened to them, where they will be! Neighborhood of tango, what happened to that one , Juana, the blonde, I loved so much. Will she know that I suffer, thinking of her, since the afternoon I left her! Neighborhood of tango, moon and mystery From the memory I see you again!

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Copyright (c) Planet Tango 1998-2011 All Rights Reserved

BAILARIN COMPADRITO

Braggart dancer (1929)

LYRICS by: Miguel Bucino

MUSIC by: Miguel Bucino

TRANSLATION by: Alberto Paz

Last updated on: 11/9/11

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Sing along with OSCAR LARROCA with ALFREDO DE ANGELIS Sing along with TITO REYES with ANIBAL TROILO

CASTELLANO

ENGLISH

Vestido como un dandy, peinao a la gomina y dueño de una mina más linda que una flor, bailás en la milonga con aire de importancia, luciendo tu elegancia y haciendo exhibición. Cualquiera iba a decirte, che, reo de otros tiempos, que un día llegarías a rey del cabaret, que pa’ enseñar tu corte pondrías academia… Al taura siempre premia la suerte que es mujer. Bailarín compadrito, que floriaste tu corte primero, en el viejo bailongo orillero de Barracas al sur. Bailarín compadrito, que quisiste probar otra vida, y al lucir tu famosa corrida te viniste al Maipú. Araca, cuando a veces oís La Cumparsita yo sé cómo palpita tu cuore al recordar que un día lo bailaste de lengue y sin un mango y ahora el mismo tango bailás hecho un bacán. Pero algo vos darías por ser sólo un ratito el mismo compadrito del tiempo que se fue, pues cansa tanta gloria y un poco triste y viejo te ves en el espejo del viejo cabaret.

Dressed like a dandy, hair slicked with styling gel and owning a woman who is prettier than a flower, you dance at the milonga with an air of importance, shining the elegance and giving exhibition. Anyone was going to tell you, you, rascal of other times, that one day you would become a night club king, that to teach your moves you would open an academy… Luck, that is a woman, always rewards the tough one. Braggart dancer, that first showed off your moves, at the old outskirts public dance from the south of Barracas. Braggart dancer, that wanted to try another life, and to show off your famous run you came to the Maipú. Watch it, sometimes when you hear La Cumparsita I know how your heart beats when remembering that one day you danced it in shirt sleeves and without a dime and now you dance the same tango looking like a wealthy man. But you’d give anything for being just for a moment the same braggart of a time that went away, because so much glory is tiresome and a little sad and old you see yourself in the mirror of the old night club.

Copyright (c) Planet Tango 1998-2011 All Rights Reserved

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.

Copyright (c) Planet Tango 1998-2012 All Rights Reserved