"In the card-game of life, I usually know what's in the dealer's hand. And at my side, I hear them say it’s ‘cos I’ve got some crazy luck!"
On one level, the tango SUERTE LOCA (1924) is a kind of gambler's testament in which the narrator, a hard-bitten card-shark, explains the facts of life to a younger opponent, somewhat pompously taking the game and its many challenges as a metaphor for life in general. On another level, the gambler's long, rambling, but thoroughly entertaining monologue is a colossal bluff designed to distract and disarm the younger player, who almost certainly holds the better hand; such bombastic chicanery is an indispensable feature of Argentina's and Uruguay's most popular card game, truco. "Bravado, lies, and perhaps some truths are shouted around the table as the round gets underway." (argen-times) The speech also contains numerous covert, coded signals addressed to the narrator's partner. Fertile ground for any tango decoder!
As was the case with many Golden Age tangos, neither Francisco Fiorentino nor Armando Moreno sang all the stanzas; the denouement of the third and final stanza would have been lost to listeners of those recordings. I guess one had to buy the sheet music to get the whole story!
Suerte loca contains many puzzling words and phrases that required decoding; our explanatory notes follow the text. As always, your comments and corrections are welcome. We are not yet infallible!
Many thanks to Paul Bottomer for editorial inspiration, moral support, bright ideas, and all around tango wizardry. This is Paul's second appearance on Tango Decoder, and as before, he is a huge asset. Please check out Paul's new group on Facebook, Today's Tango Is..., and don't forget to "Follow" it! It's a great way to start your day.
[Illus: Cartas Españolas, used for playing truco.]
Lyricist Francisco García Jiménez's biography at todotango.com. Composer Anselmo Aieta's biography at todotango.com.
Suerte loca On YouTube:
Charlo and his Orquesta Típica, (1928, dir. Canaro?)
Armando Moreno with Enrique Rodriguez (1941)
Francisco Fiorentino with Aníbal Troilo (1942)
NEW! Tango Decoder's subtitled video of SUERTE LOCA (w/ Troilo/Fiorentino)
Suerte loca (Crazy Luck)
Tango, 1924
Music: Anselmo Aieta
Lyrics: Francisco García Jiménez
English language version and notes Copyright © 2014 by Tango Decoder/Michael Krugman. All Rights Reserved.
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En el naipe del vivir,
suelo acertar la carta de la boca…
y a mi lado oigo decir
que es porque estoy con una suerte loca.
Al saber le llaman suerte
lo aprendí viendo trampearme
Y ahora solo han de coparme
los que banquen con la muerte.
¡En el naipe del vivir,
para ganar, primero perdi!
Yo también entré a jugar
confiado en la ceguera del azar,
y luego vi que todo era mentir…
y el capital
en manos del más vil.
No me creés…
te pierde el corazón…
que fe tenés…
¿No ves que no acertás?
¡Que si jugás a cartas de ilusion,
son de dolor las cartas que se dan!
No me envidies si me ves acertador,
pues soy el Desengaño...
Y si ciego así perdés,
es que tenés los lindos veinte años...
El tapete es la esperanza
y, a pesar de lo aprendido,
si me dan lo que he perdido
vuelve a hundirme la confianza...
¡Suerte loca es conservar
una ilusión en tanto penar! ..................................
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In the card-game of life,
I usually know what's in the dealer's hand...*
And at my side, I hear them say
it’s ‘cos I’ve got some crazy luck!
"Knowledge is often mistaken for luck";*
I learned that by seeing myself get fleeced.
And now, the only ones who'd "see" my bets*
are those who'd pay with their lives.*
In the card-game of life,
to win, I first had to lose!
I too started to play,
trusting in the blindness of chance.
And then I saw that it was all a lie...
that the vilest cheat held all the cash.*
You don't believe me? Your heart leads you astray!*
What faith you've got! Don't you see you've got it wrong?*
That if you play cards of illusion,*
you'll be dealt the cards of pain!
Don’t be jealous if I call your bluff,*
Disappointment is my middle name!
And if you blindly lose,
it's just that you’re too young to know the score…*
For me, the table is the only hope
and, despite all I’ve learned,
if they gave me back what I've lost,
the confidence would ruin me all over again.
Crazy luck is maintaining an illusion
in so much agony! ......................
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NOTES:
* I usually know the dealer's hand: suelo acertar la carta de la boca. There's been much speculation about the meaning of this phrase, and it is said to allude to the game of truco (Eng.: trick or tricky), a card game of Spanish origin extremely popular in Argentina and Uruguay. That's almost certainly true, but I've yet to see a coherent account of exactly what the carta de la boca is in truco, and how it comes into play. That uncertainty has made it very difficult to give a concise interpretation of this much-disputed line. Recently, I have come to believe that what the narrator of Suerte loca calls la carta de la boca is in fact la carta de la mano, which indisputably is a feature of truco. In the game of truco, la mano ("the hand") is the player sitting to the dealer's right, who is the first player to bet in each round. As it happens, the word boca ("mouth") is used interchangeably with the word mano ("hand") to describe the cards a player holds: the hand holding the cards has the shape of a mouth. (Mil gracias to playwright and actress Marisa Barboza of Montevideo for explaining this and many other aspects of rioplatense culture to me.) If boca and mano are interchangeable, then la carta de la boca and la carta de la mano are one and the same. (A very entertaining and informative account of truco from the blog argen-times will tell you all you need to know, and perhaps more, about the game. Excerpts appear in notes that follow.)
If there were any remaining uncertainty as to the identity of the game being played in Suerte loca, it would compounded by the ambiguity of the verb acertar, which has many shades of meaning including: to get something right, to choose the correct thing, to guess in advance, to hit upon, to hit the target or mark, or to provide certainty in the matter of something doubtful or hidden. The word recurs several times in the lyric, with a different shade of meaning each time. If the game in question is truco, and if la carta de la boca is in fact la carta de la mano, then the meaning is quite clear: the narrator usually knows in advance, he "guesses," which cards the mano has in his hand, and he bets accordingly. Since there is no English equivalent of la mano as the word is used in truco, I have resorted to the nearest English cousin I can think of, and that is dealer. So bear in mind, though our English-language version of the song says "I usually know the dealer's cards," what we really mean is not the dealer, but la mano, the player sitting to the dealer's right. The dealer, by the way, is called el pie, "the foot."
There is another meaning of la carta de la boca that depends on a completely literal reading of the line (again, thanks to la Uruguayita Marisa...). In truco, as in bridge, it is not unusual for partners to telegraph the cards in their hand using a standard, preestablished set of signs and gestures, or señas. But arranging a secret set of gestures with your partner alone is considered foul play, if not outright cheating. Many of these señas, whether fair or foul, involve movements of the lips or mouth. Thus, acertar la carta de la boca is to learn your partner's cards de la boca, that is, "from the mouth."
[By the way, there's another rioplatense card game, el pinche, in which a carta de la boca plays an important role. In el pinche, four cards are placed face up on the table, three cards are dealt to each player, and the players take turns trying to make a pair with one card from the table and another from their hand. When a player makes a pair, he gets to keep both cards; the player holding the most cards at the end of the game wins. The carta de la boca is a fifth card that is also dealt face up. It's called la carta de la boca because it is dealt at the opening (boca, mouth) of each trick. If a player can make a pair with the carta de la boca, he gets to keep the pair, plus all the other cards on the table. I just mention that in the interest of good scholarship; I don't see any reason to believe that el pinche is our narrator's game.]
In summary, dear reader, it is our sincere hope that from now on, when you're listening or dancing to Suerte loca and you hear Fiorentino, Moreno, Charlo, or even Laborde crooning that line, suelo acertar la carta de la boca, you'll feel pretty secure in your understanding of the phrase. And at that moment, you just might crack an enigmatic little Tango Decoder smile.
* "Knowledge is often mistaken for luck": Al saber le llaman suerte. The phrase is a Spanish-language aphorism meaning that what people think of as luck is actually a result of knowledge. In this case, "knowledge" is the narrator's know-how or skill in playing and/or cheating at cards. The mention of the word saber ("knowledge") may be a coded message about the content of the narrator's hand: un saber is a type of sword, and "swords" (espadas) are one of the suits in truco.
* "see" my bets: coparme. Copar has several possible meanings including: to place a bet equal to the bank, to go banco (as in bacarrat), to go all in (to bet all one has). What seems to be implied here is that the narrator is so skilled at cheating and/or his bets are so large that anyone who would "see" them (i.e., bet an equal sum) would have to be very brave, or very reckless. The use of the word coparme may also be a coded message letting the narrator's partner know he has one or a pair of copas ("cups," one of the suits in truco).
* those who'd pay with their lives: los que banquen con la muerte. In Argentina and Uruguay, the verb bancar means "to pay for" or "to put up with/tolerate something." The only ones who can match bets with the narrator are those who would either "pay with death," (which could mean either killing their opponent, or being killed by him) or who would would put up with, tolerate, or "risk" death. The English phrase "pay with their lives" seems a suitable equivalent.
* the vilest cheat held all the cash: (Yo) vi...el capital en manos del más vil. Literally, "I saw the capital in the hands of the most vile/low (person)."
* your heart leads you astray: te pierde el corazón. All the lyrics I found online, which are presumably derived from the sheet music for Suerte loca, say te pierde el corazón ("Your heart leads you astray"). Both Fiorentino and Moreno can be heard to sing te pierdes corazón: "You're losing heart."
* Don't you see you've got it wrong: No ves que no acertás. There's that pesky verb again, acertar. Here, it seems to mean "get something right." No acertás, then, would be, "you've got it all wrong." It could also be, "Don't you see that you can't guess?" Furthermore, the phrase may be a coded message: no hacer taz(a) ("Don't play cups.")
* that if you play cards of illusion: Que si jugás a cartas de ilusión. Both Fiorentino and Moreno sings, si apuntás a cartas de ilusión: "if you bet..." The Spanish word ilusión is always a little tricky, since it can mean illusion, delusion, dream, or hope; only rarely does one have the luxury of being certain which it is. Here, it could be any of them.
* Don't be jealous: No me envidies. An envido is one of the two types of bets in truco. By saying the word truco a player initiates the betting for each round, and it is one of the posible responses once truco is declared. If, out of carelessness or by the trickery of his opponents, a player says the word when he doesn't mean it, it is taken as a real bet, with potentially disastrous results. The narrator's use of the word envidies may be an error on his part; it may be may be a subterfuge designed to provoke an error by his younger, less experienced opponent; or it may be a coded message to his partner.
* if I call your bluff: si me ves acertador. There's acertar again, here in noun form, acertador. In the context of the song, I have taken it to mean "one who calls your bluff" (i.e., because he "guesses in advance" that his opponent doesn't have the cards he pretends to have). However, there's an identical word in Portuguese, acertador, which may well have stolen across the border from the gaming tables of neighboring Brazil. It means "winner." An alternate reading, then, could be, "if you see me the winner."
Finally, there may be pun built into this line, since acertador could also be taken as a ser dador, "being the dealer," in which case the line might be a signal to the narrator's partner.
* and if blindly you lose: To be ciego ("blind") means that a player lacks the points necessary for an envido or the cards to make a good hand.
* too young to know the score: tenés los lindos veinte años... "You're twenty beautiful years old."
* if they gave me back what I've lost, the confidence would ruin me all over again: Here, the narrator at last confronts reality: his bombastic bluff and all his subterfuges have backfired, and he is ruined. Yet he's resigned to his fate; even if he had it to do all over again, the outcome would be the same.
These excerpts from the argen-times piece give a sense of the kind of exaggerated bluffing and subterfuge that is typical of truco:
"Truco (Trick) is just that. A game filled with trickery, lies, gamesmanship, tactics, skill and like with any other card game, a little bit of old lady luck.... La mano (the hand) is the person to the right of the dealer and he has first chance to bet. If he chooses to he will shout envido (as soon as that word is mentioned at any moment then the bet is made). During the betting, players will crack jokes and employ other means of distraction to try to put their opponent off; be it to dissuade his betting or to to lull him into a false sense of security....If envido was played for, then knowing the total of your opponent gives you some idea what cards he has; but throughout the betting more lies and gamesmanship go on as you communicate with your partner as to the order in which you want to throw your cards or you use one of the many sneaky little tricks available to win.... If it all makes absolutely no sense whatsoever here, then rest assured it makes even less sense the first time you see a game played." (Emphasis as published)
* crazy luck is maintaining an illusion despite such agony: Suerte loca es conservar una ilusión en tanto penar, that is, maintaining the illusion (that one holds a winning hand), despite the agony (of knowing that one doesn't). The word tanto is also used to refer to an envido without actually saying the word. Thus, the final words of the song may be read as, "In the envido, suffering!" As we English-speaking card sharks say, "Read 'em and weep."
"Each time I call you with greater anxiety; each time that 'no' is said more coldly... I am to blame, I was living in another world, and now I’m waking up to reality...." 
