LA PIBA DE LOS JASMINES: Sunny seamstress succumbs to seductive scoundrel

"She was the shop’s hardest worker, industrious, happy, and honest, who stole her blush from the red clouds of the sky at dawn." 

LA PIBA DE LOS JASMINES
(The Girl with the Jasmines)
Tango, 1943
Words : Julio Plácido Navarrine 
Music : Ricardo Malerba / Dante Smurra

There are two very fine English-language versions of La piba de los jasmines, one by my esteemed colleague and friend Sasha Vicente-Grabovetsky, and the other by the good folks over at Tanguito.co.uk. In my own reading of the lyrics, a few ideas came up that were not reflected in either of those versions, so I decided to do one of my own. I hope that my attempt is worthy of its predecessors. I'd like to think it sheds some small ray of new light on this classic tango verse.

Tango Decoder's notes follow the text. Our subtitled Spanish-English video of La piba de los jasmines is below the notes.

No hubo piba tan hermosa Desde el Bajo a la Barranca, Como aquella que llegaba Y se iba con el sol. Del taller fue la hormiguita Laboriosa, alegre y franca, Que a la aurora le robaba Todo el “rouge” de su arrebol. Más de un guapo prepotente Hizo ronda en su ventana, Quién la viera, los domingos Hacer guardia en el portón. Esperando, presintiendo Y ostentando muy ufana, Un jazmín prendido al pecho Custodiando al corazón. Culpa fue de aquel soñado Malandrín de sus amores, Que diciendo “triunfo” él sólo Las cuarenta le acusó.* Doctorado en amoríos Le hizo ver los esplendores, De otra vida y de otro mundo Y ella, ciega, sonrió. Él le dijo: “Margarita del suburbio tan lozana, sos la estampa más porteña de Griseta y de Mimí.” Y en el pecho tembloroso De la reina suburbana, Un jazmín agonizaba Cuando ella dijo: “Sí...”

From El Bajo to La Barranca, there was none so beautiful as the girl who came and went with the sun. She was the shop’s hardest worker,* industrious, happy, and honest, who stole her blush from the red clouds of the sky at dawn.* More than one puffed-up romeo took a turn at her window, though he might have seen her on Sundays, standing watch at the church gate,* waiting, hoping, putting on a cheerful face, a jasmine clutched to her breast, protecting her heart. It was the fault of that dreamy scoundrel* she fell for, who, declaring triumph, he alone won her heart.* Well-versed in love affairs, he got her used to the glitter of another life, another world, and she blindly, smiled assent. He said to her: “Margarita of the slums so charming, you are the image, more porteña, of Griseta or Mimí.” And on the tremulous breast of the queen of the suburbs a jasmine withered when she said: “Yes...”

NOTES:

* shop’s hardest worker: Del taller fue la hormiguita. Virtually the only jobs available to working-class women were prostitute or seamstress. A seamstress usually worked in a taller, a sewing workshop, which was a small factory equipped with machines: a "sweatshop." An hormiguita is literally a worker ant, but the term is commonly used to denote a hard-working person. The song's heroine is "the little worker ant of the factory/workshop," meaning she's the hardest worker in the place.

* stole her blush...dawn: The implication is that the heroine is so lovely that she needs no makeup.

* scoundrel: Malandrín. Alternate meanings: thief, ruffian, scrounger, delinquent, a person with ill intentions.

* standing watch at the church gate: A portón in this context is not just a big gate, but the front gate of a church. The malandrín has promised our heroine marriage, then left her waiting at the altar. She continues to await him at the church every Sunday, a jasmine clutched to her breast. Hence, the bell-like piano notes heard at 1:56 and 2:26 are echoes of the wedding bells that failed to toll for her. This is the central image of the song, though it may take a bit of decoding to understand.

* ...declaring triumph...won her heart: Triunfo means both "triumph" and "trumps." In the card-game trute a player who holds a king and a horse of the same suit scores extra points by declaring or "singing" them. The king and horse of the "trump" suit are worth the most, forty points. In the song, the scoundrel metaphorically holds the trump suit, and as a result, he "declares forty." His seductive wiles trump the heroine's virtue.

* Griseta or Mimí:  Grisette refers to the inexpensive grey fabric worn by working class girls. The name Griseta appears in several tango songs, most notably the 1924 composition by same name, recorded by Gardel, Di Sarli, Biagi, and others. Mimí is the heroine of Puccini’s La bohème. Like the piba of the song, she is a seamstress; she dies of tuberculosis at the opera's climax. The line suggests that the piba is the equal of the French Grisette or Mimí, but more porteña in appearance and/or affect.

Comments

[Lucia Figueroa]

Great translation! You explained many things that would probably remain hidden.
I like how he says to her that she's a porteñan version of Mimi, what a creativity.

[Lucia Figueroa]

One detail (not important), the jasmine flower is probably this one: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSqccixX2I3vtzW6v-UdmupR_yGs1QbYNw4Zi1wID_U0mJKp16F

The one in the picture grows here too, but the one I send you is more common in our gardens, if you come to the south during these months you will find them everywhere, and their fragrance is delicious.

[Felicity]

Also here:
Quand mon âme aura pris son vol à l'horizon
Vers celle de Gavroche et de Mimi Pinson,
Celles des titis, des grisettes,

http://lyrics.wikia.com/Georges_Brassens:Supplique_Pour_%C3%8Atre_Enterr%C3%A9_%C3%80_La_Plage_De_S%C3%A8te

"la estampa más porteña" I do wonder if he just meant literally, physically, & if not, then what...