Here's another shattering vision of life from tango's woozy prophet of sturm and drang, Enrique Santos Discépolo (a.k.a. Discepolín). Perhaps for the best, the really disturbing bits are in the final stanzas, which aren't sung in the better-known, Golden Age versions of the song.
Notes are below the English-language version. Many thanks to Jozef Van Der Molen for getting me interested in this lyric. It's been a wild ride!
[That's Discepolín on the right, doing his own little puppet show.]
Song data at tango.info
Discépolo biography at Wikipedia
Infamia (Disgrace)
1939
Music: Enrique Santos Discépolo
Lyric: Enrique Santos Discépolo
People who are brutal when they act without mercy,
people who are savage when they’re doing evil,
sought to turn the image of your love and my hope
into puppets in their Punch and Judy show....*
For myself, what did I care about your past....?
if with a pure heart you faced the future.
Joyfully I opened my arms to your desire and with my love,
as clowns,* we went on with our lives.
It was useless to protest
that you wanted to be good.
It was silly to wail
promises of your redemption.
People are brutal;
they always hate him who dreams.
Derisively they mock him;
throwing his best intentions off a cliff.
With your history and my honor
stripped bare in the marketplace,
they danced their dance of horror,
without compassion...
[Canaro/Adrian and D'Arienzo/Mauré end the song here, repeating the preceding verse. Remaining stanzas are not sung. Proceed at your own risk!]
[Your anguish understood* that it was impossible;
to struggle against people is pure hell.
That's why you left without telling me, my love!
And in the end you plunged into your destiny.]
[Your life from then on was an act of self-destruction,
a whirlpool of horror and alcohol.
Last night you self-destructed, once and for all.
My soul tenderly weeps for you in your final rest...Dear heart!]
[May God shelter you in your sleep,
sweet angel who could not achieve her dream.
I wanted to do more for you,
but that was no more than a wish;]
[May your soul forgive my life
for the best it could do.
In death, all in white,
your hope will be realized,
dressed as a bride before God...
just as it dreamed.*]
NOTES:
*Punch and Judy show: The Spanish word guiñol means a puppet show in general, or more specifically a Punch and Judy show. I chose the latter interpretation for its aggressive, violent connotaitons, which reflect the context of the song more accurately.
*as clowns, we went on with our lives.": salimos, de payasos, a vivir. The image of clowns stands, figuratively, in opposition to the earlier image of Punch and Judy show. The song's protagonists prefer to live as happy, freely-moving clowns rather than hateful, violent puppets held captive to the whim of a puppet-master. To be a puppet is to be a slave; to be a clown is to live free. Discépolo himself seems to have been something of a clown. He was sometimes compared to Charlie Chaplin.
*your anguish understood that it was impossible: Discépolo personifies the emotion of anguish.
*your hope will be realized...as it dreamed: llegará tu esperanza …como soño. Again, the poet personifies an emotion.
[En castellano]
La gente, que es brutal cuando se ensaña,
la gente, que es feroz cuando hace un mal,
buscó para hacer títeres en su guiñol,
la imagen de tu amor y mi esperanza...
A mí, ¿qué me importaba tu pasado...?
si tu alma entraba pura a un porvenir.
Dichoso abrí los brazos a tu afán y con mi amor
salimos, de payasos, a vivir.
Fue inútil gritar
que querías ser buena.
Fue estúpido aullar
la promesa de tu redención...
La gente es brutal
y odia siempre al que sueña,
lo burla y con risas despeña
su intento mejor...
Tu historia y mi honor
desnudaos en la feria,
bailaron su danza de horror,
sin compasión...
Tu angustia comprendio que era imposible,
luchar contra la gente es infernal.
Por eso me dejaste sin decirlo… amor!…
y fuiste a hundirte al fin en tu destino.
Tu vida desde entonces fue un suicidio,
vorágine de horrores y de alcohol;
anoche te mataste ya del todo,
y mi emocion
ante llora en tu descanso.. corazón!
Quisiera que Dios amparara tu sueño,
muñeca de amor… que no pudo alcanzar su ilusión.
Yo quise hacer mas pero todo fue un ansia;
que tu alma perdone a mi vida su esfuerzo mejor.
De blanco al morir, llegará tu esperanza
vestida de novia ante Dios…como soño.
Comments