Thanks to Paul Bottomer and Fifi's Tango Music Musings (Fi Gosali) for calling my attention to this lyric. Now we know what a "fifí" really is! (See my notes below.) Oddly, Julio Pollero's own 1927 rendition of the song is not listed on tango.info, but a 1950 version by Domingo Federico, canta Mario Bustos, is. That's "davi," I guess.
Enrique Dizeo (1893-1980) was an extremely prolific lyricist. He penned the verses to Mas solo que nunca, Cuando se ha querido mucho, Que nadie sepa mi sufir, El encopao, Ficha de oro, and more than fifty other tangos, milongas, and valses. That's Dizeo (r.) being interviewed by Luis Acosta of Mosaicos Porteños in 1977.
An improved version of this translation with additional annotations is here.
Tiburón (Shark)
Tango, 1927
Música: Julio Pollero / Luis D’Abraccio
Letra: Enrique Dizeo
Now that I’m a veteran,
I know the world like the best of men.
Since my youth I styled myself
a smart-talker and skilled in love
I come from the barrio of Villa Crespo,
I’ve left the poor folks behind
And now I dress myself to the nines
And I 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 partying wildly*
And so I pass my luxurious nights
because I wasn’t born to suffer.
And at four in the morning
with a gal, with a gal
and at four in the morning
with a gal I leave 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:
*quite the playboy: hecho un fifí.
*partying wildly: como el rana, literally, like a frog. 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".
*bachelor pad: bulín. See previous note.
*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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