Subtitled Tango #38: MILONGA CRIOLLA ("Creole Milonga") Canaro/Maida, 1936

MILONGA CRIOLLA ("Creole Milonga")
Milonga, 1936
Music by Alberto Soifer
Words by Manuel Romero

Recorded by Orquesta Típica Francisco Canaro 1936-10-06 with vocal by Roberto Maida.

Lyrics transcribed verbatim from the original 1938 sheet music in the collection of the National Library of Argentina.

Subtitled video in Spanish and English by Michael Krugman for TangoDecoder.com. Text and notes follow the embedded video. Unsung third verse is included.

Tango Decoder is indebted to María Rosa Braile for her indispensable translation assistance. Thanks also to Our Man In Buenos Aires, Lucas TangoDJ, for retrieving the cover and lyrics.

Photo: Sheet music featuring Gloria Guzman, star of the 1938 film "Radio Bar," written and directed by Milonga Criolla lyricist Manuel Romero.

Yo soy la milonga criolla la reina de las canciones que alivian de amor las penas y alegran los corazones. El encanto de mi ritmo juguetón fascina y en el se encierra toda el alma de mi tierra de mi Argentina tierra de amor. Al rezongar el bandoneón un milongón criollo las pretenciones porteñas de otra canción con mi compás arrollo. Y no hay mujer que de un varón resista el embrollo cuando se baila corazón a corazón de una milonga al són. Oyendo cantar a un criollo una milonga porteña se olvida la mala suerte y hasta el dolor se desdeña... Mientras pueda una guitarra desgranar tu queja en un oido, no has de caer en el olvido milonga vieja canción de amor.

I am the creole milonga,* the queen of the songs that soothe the sorrows of love and make the hearts rejoice. The spell of my playful rhythm captivates and in it is locked all the heart and soul of my land, of my Argentina, land of love. When the bandoneón moans a creole milongón,* the porteño pretensions of another song* I crush with my beat. And there's no woman  who of a man resists the complication* when they're dancing heart to heart to the sound of a milonga. Hearing a creole sing a porteña milonga one forgets ill fortune and disdains sorrow... As long as a guitar can sow its lament* in somebody's ear, you needn't be forgotten old milonga, song of love.

* creole: The word criollo denotes to the original Spanish settlers of Argentina and their descendants, many of whom intermarried with the indigenous people. Here the term serves to assert the authentically Argentine identity of the milonga.

* milongón: A near precursor or contemporary of the milonga, similarly derived from the African candombe. The milongón is said to have originated in Montevideo, Uruguay, in the middle of the nineteenth century. The terms milonga and milongón are used more or less interchangeably in the lyrics of milongas. See our English-language version of MILONGÓN for more on this topic.

* porteño pretensions of another song: Presumably the "other song" is el tango, with its urban origins and big-city pretensions.

* resists the complication: resista el embrollo. The word embrollo (alt. sp., embroyo) is defined as a mess, muddle, confusion, complication, tangle (e.g., of ropes or wires), a fix, or a difficult or embarrassing situation. The message here is that men are not always easy for women to get along with, and a romantic exchange with a man can be complicated. Some women may resist the complication. But that resistance is bound to be overcome when they dance "heart to heart, to the sound of a milonga.
    The Real Academia Española gives the primary definition of embrollo as enredo, confusión, maraña. One meaning of enredo is "love affair." We chose the more literal "complication" for our English version in order to retain the ambiguous quality of the original. Other interpretations are possible.

* As long as a guitar...: The original milonga campera ("country milonga") was a style of music that was popular among the wandering minstrels of Argentina, the payadores, during the mid-nineteenth century. This seminal form of the milonga, with its insistent habanera-derived rhythm, was an important influence in the development of tango music. By the eighth decade of the century, the milonga campera had virtually disappeared. The urban milonga (sometimes call milonga tangueada) of the 1930s identified itself as a revival and renovation of that earlier music which had been virtually extinct for fifty years. A recurring theme in the lyrics of the milongas of the 1930s is the preservation of the milonga campera during its years of near-extinction by the lone musician, who plucks it on his guitar in some lonely place. We find a very similar theme in Laurenz and Contursi's Milonga de mis amores:

Oigo tu voz...
Engarzada en los acordes de una lírica guitarra,
Sos milonga de otros tiempos... [...]

Sin embargo te olvidaron y en el callejón
Tan sólo una guitarra te recuerda... criolla como vos

I hear your voice
set to the chords of a dreamy guitar...
You are the milonga of another time... [...]

Even so they forgot you and in the alleyway,
only a guitar remembers... creole like you.