Here's my second take on Enrique Dizeo's lyric for Julio Pollero's 1927 tango, Tiburón. A few of the song's images and innuendoes eluded me the first time around. Below, I've made changes to the English-language version and added notes where appropriate.
[Photo: Cabaret scene, Buenos Aires 1924]
Tiburón (Shark)*
Tango, 1927
Música: Julio Pollero / Luis D’Abraccio
Letra: Enrique Dizeo
I'm a man whose been around,*
I know the world like the best of them.
Since my youth I styled myself
a smart-talker and skillful lover.
I come from the barrio of Villa Crespo,
but I’ve left the poor folks behind.*
And now I dress myself to the nines
and arrive downtown looking quite the playboy.*
Yo soy un hombre ya veterano,
conozco el mundo como el mejor.
Desde purrete me hice de línea,
locuaz y ducho para el amor.
Vengo de un barrio, de Villa Crespo,
con gente pobre me divertí.
Y ya de grande me hice de pilchas
y llegué al centro hecho un fifí.
And so I pass my luxurious nights
out on the town, going wild.*
And so I pass my luxurious nights
because I wasn’t born to suffer.
And at four in the morning
with a babe, with a babe,
and at four in the morning*
with a babe* I leave for my bachelor pad*
Y así paso mis noches bacanas
de parranda, como el rana.
Y así paso mis noches bacanas
porque yo no nací pa’ sufrir.
Y a las cuatro de la matina
con la mina, con la mina,
y a las cuatro de la matina
con la mina me voy pa’l bulín.
One party after another, that’s what I crave,
celebrations and dances, whatever’s clever!*
If I’ve got cash,* you’ll always
find me happy to spend it
That’s "life," as the poet said,
but a poet of the arrabal,*
and you gotta know how to live it, buddy,
not let it get you down.
Farras corridas es lo que anhelo,
fiestas y bailes, ¡meta placer!
Si tengo un mango para gastarlo
siempre contento me van a ver.
Así es la "davi", dijo un poeta,
pero un poeta del arrabal
y hay que saberla vivir, compadre,
sino resulta sentimental.
NOTES:
*Shark: In Argentina and Uruguay, the word tiburón, shark, refers to a wolf or Don Juan, a serial seducer of women.
*an old hand: The word veterano means a veteran, but it also means an old hand, somebody who's "been around." The latter interpretation is clearly indicated here. I don't know how I missed it on the first try!
*...I've left the poor folks behind: The song's protagonist is from Villa Crespo, which was a working-class, immigrant neighborhood and the site of several conventillos (overcrowded boarding houses with minimal sanitation, inadequate heating, and common cooking facilities). How he supports his luxurious lifestyle is not immediately apparent, although it isn't farfetched to assume that he is a criminal of some sort, probably a pimp. (See below.)
*looking quite the playboy: hecho un fifí. A fifí is a person from a wealthy family who chooses not to work; a playboy (or girl). The song's protagonist is clearly not a fifí, he merely dresses like one. (See previous note.)
*out on the town, going wild: De parranda means "out on the town." Como el rana, literally, like a frog, means "wild" or "wildly." A similar expression appears in Celedonio Flores' lyric for "El bulín de la calle Ayacucho." El bulin de la calle Ayacucho, que en mis tiempos de rana alquilaba (The bachelor pad on Ayacucho street that I used to rent in my wild days".
*At four in the morning...bachelor pad: One of the only remunerative forms of employment available to young women in this period was in the cabaret as a copera or alternadora. The copera danced and flirted with male customers and received a small percentage of what they spent on drinks. Many of them were also prostitutes. Here, the relationship between the song's protagonist and his mina, his girl, is not entirely clear. It may be that she is a woman that he encountered at a party and is taking back to his bulín. Or she may be a copera that he, her pimp, is picking up after her night's work at a cabaret. The song does not specify.
*with a babe: The text of the lyrics gives this as con la mina, "with the girl." In Pollero's recorded version, however, the chorus sings con la piba. Piba is a young girl or "babe." On the recording, at least one member of the chorus sings con las pibas (plural), suggesting that our Shark has more than one piba, or perhaps several in succession.
*bachelor pad: bulín. A small apartment or room, often used for trysts or other sexual assignations.
*whatever's clever: ¡meta placer! The expression meta... followed by a noun indicates a restatement or summation of what came before it. The sense of this line is "celebrations and dances, and all such things that give pleasure" or, in idiomatic English, "whatever's clever."
*cash: mango (Lunfardo).
*That's "life"...arrabal: The word vida, life, is written "davi." The letters are transposed, a form of slang called Vesre (Reverse). Only a poet of the arrabal, the rough and tumble suburbs of BA, would write it that way.
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