Subtitled Video #6: BARRIO DE TANGO: Memories and mysteries from Manzi

"A bit of barrio, there in Pompeya, falling asleep on the side of the embankment. A lantern swinging on the railway barrier and the train sowing its mysteries of farewell.... That's how I remember your nights, tango barrio, with the wagons pulling into the timber yard, the moon splashing in the mud, and in the distance, the voice of the bandoneón."

Barrio de tango (1942)
Music: Aníbal Troilo
Words: Homero Manzi (pictured)

Our subtitled video is below. Our face-to-face text in Spanish and English is below the video.

Un pedazo de barrio, allá en Pompeya, durmiéndose al costado del terraplén. Un farol balanceando en la barrera y el misterio de adiós que siembra el tren. Un ladrido de perros a la luna. El amor escondido en un portón. Y los sapos redoblando en la laguna y a lo lejos la voz del bandoneón. Barrio de tango, luna y misterio, calles lejanas, ¡cómo estarán! Viejos amigos que hoy ni recuerdo, ¡qué se habrán hecho, dónde estarán! Barrio de tango, qué fue de aquella, Juana, la rubia, que tanto amé. ¡Sabrá que sufro, pensando en ella, desde la tarde que la dejé! Barrio de tango, luna y misterio, ¡desde el recuerdo te vuelvo a ver! Un coro de silbidos allá en la esquina. El codillo llenando el almacén. Y el dramón de la pálida vecina que ya nunca salió a mirar el tren. Así evoco tus noches, barrio tango, con las chatas entrando al corralón y la luna chapaleando sobre el fango y a lo lejos la voz del bandoneón.

A bit of barrio, there in Pompeya,* falling asleep on the side of the embankment. A lantern swinging on the railway barrier and the train sowing its mysteries of farewell. Dogs barking at the moon. Love hidden behind a gate. A crescendo of croaking in the pond, and in the distance the voice of the bandoneón. Barrio of tango, moonlight and mystery, faraway streets, where can they be? Old friends I still remember now, What happened to them, where have they gone? Barrio of tango, what about “that” girl, Juana, the blonde I loved so? She must know that I’ve been suffering, thinking of her, since the evening I left her! Barrio of tango, moonlight and mystery, In memory I see you again! [A chorus of whistles out on the corner. A shop crowded with gamblers. And the melodrama of the pallid neighbor lady who never again went to meet the train.] That's how I remember your nights, tango barrio, with the wagons pulling into the timber yard, the moon splashing in the mud, and in the distance, the voice of the bandoneón.

* Pompeya: "Nueva Pompeya is a neighbourhood in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Located in the South side, it has long been one of the city's proletarian districts steeped in the tradition of tango and one where many of the first tangos were written and performed.

"The legendary tango composer Homero Manzi set three very popular tangos, Sur, Barrio de tango, and Manoblanca, in Nueva Pompeya, describing a melancholy landscape (“Pompeya and beyond the flood”) that, even today, defines much of the district's physiognomy." (Wikipedia)