Tango Time Machine — Tango Decoder

"Maula": I'm ashamed to be your wife!

 

It's always inspiring when a woman has the courage to speak her truth. Here's an unforgettable example, in the form of the tango "Maula." It was first recorded by songbird Rosita Quiroga on March 17, 1927, and as an instrumental by Julio De Caro's orchestra four days later. It's had several reprises over the years, including this emotionally raw performance by Diana Durán with Enrique Mora's quartet. Tango Decoder's English version and notes are below, followed by the original, en castellano.

Maula* (1927)
Composer: Adolfo Mondina
Lyrics: Víctor Soliño

English version Copyright © 2013 by Tango Decoder 

Don’t even set foot in the room*
because I can't stand to see you;
Can't you see that I'm ashamed to be your wife?*

I want, just so you know,
To have at my side always
A man who's bold and brave,
not a maula, a coward, like you.

A man who can bet his life
if it comes to that
on a single card
Without blinking an eye.

A man who'd be a man
Who'd stand up for himself
And not cry coward
Just like a woman.

Maula! Who, faced with an insult, kept quiet
Maula! Who, the coward, backed down
Maula! Whose idea of bravery is
When you're out drinking
You mix it up with some woman.

The gang at the club* 
Drunk on Pernod*
They dragged my name on the floor
My name that's the same as yours!

And you, coward, from a table
Witnessed this outrage,
Lowered your head,
And didn’t say a word.

Seeing you wimp out like that
--such a big, tough guy!--
I swear on my mother's grave
I pity you!

Don't come back to the room
Because my heart is set on a real man,
And you're barely even male.

NOTES

*Maula: (Lunfardo) A lazy, ineffectual person, a coward, a bum. 

*room: Cotorro (Ar. slang), a modest apartment occupied by a single person or a couple without children. A place used for amorous meetings. A small, single room. 

*...ashamed to be your wife: hasta vergüenza me da ser tu mujer. Mujer can mean woman or wife. I originally translated this as "...ashamed to be your woman." Given the subsequent line, "...my name that's the same as yours," I think it should be wife. (revised Feb. 12, 2014) 

*club: boliche, an illegal gambling den.

*Pernod: Absinthe, a type of spirit known for its high alcohol content and reputed toxicity.

Maula* (1927) 
Música: Adolfo Mondina 
Letras: Víctor Soliño

No pises el cotorro
que no te puedo ver.
No ves que hasta vergüenza
me da ser tu mujer.

Yo quiero, pa' que sepas
tener siempre a mi lado
a un hombre bien templado,
no a un maula como vos.

A un hombre que se juegue,
si llega la ocasión,
la vida en una carta,
sin sentir emoción.

A un hombre que sea hombre
y sepa responder
y no llore cobarde,
igual que una mujer.

Maula! que ante el insulto callaste.
Maula! que cobarde te achicaste.
Maula! que sólo te creés valiente
cuando una noche de farra
te ves enfrente de una mujer.

La barra del boliche
borracha de Pernod
mi nombre que es el tuyo
por el suelo arrastró

y vos que de una mesa
oíste aquella infamia
bajaste la cabeza,
cobarde, sin chistar.

Al verte tan compadre,
con tu aire de matón,
te juro por mi madre
te tengo compasión.

No vuelvas al cotorro,
porque mi corazón,
se ha hecho para un hombre
y vos no sos varón.

I smashed myself to bits for you!

That's the anguished cry of "Tu boca mintió" (Your lips told a lie) with lyrics by Alberto Longo, recorded by Juan D'Arienzo in 1951 (with Roberto Lemos) and in 1954 (with Armando Laborde). Doing an English-language version presented some challenges, and I had to be creative with a few phrases, as noted below. As always, I don't consider this to be the final word on the lyrics, so feel free to chime in if you have better ideas! Notes are below the text, followed by the original en castellano.

Tu boca mintió (Your lips told a lie)
a.k.a. No me mires (Don't look at me)

Music: Armando Angeletti
Lyrics: Alberto Longo

Whenever I meet you, I pray you won't look at me,
because your gaze rekindles my pain;
I was hooked on you, following in your flowery path,*
I was waiting for my life to go on without you.* 
May we never meet when I'm drinking*
lest I betray my manliness and my honor.*

I...smashed myself to bits for you...
my peace, my home and my faith...
Today...ashes are all that remain
of all that was yesterday;
the night that, between kisses, I could call you mine
I dreamed a world of love and hope.
Now from the bottom of my heart I curse
the faint hope that your lips lied.*

You've hurt me; my life, my passion, my pain
were never anything but a toy for you to play with;
now I don't want to see you, I wanted to forget you,
to extinguish my affection behind some other hope;
May we never meet when I'm drinking
lest I betray my manliness and my honor.

Notes

*I was hooked on you: The original is, "Seguí tu camino." Literally, "I followed your path." But there's an expression, "Sigue tu camino," which means "Go on with your life," or "Continue on your way." Here, the lovelorn narrator says, "Seguí tu camino," meaning "I followed your way"--conveying the impression, it seems to me, that it wasn't within his power to go on with his own life. So I translated the phrase as "I was hooked on you," because when you can't go on with your own life, that's just what you are, hooked. 

*I was waiting for my life to go on without you: See previous note.

*...when I'm drinking: The phrase is "entre copas," literally between or among drinks, but it's also a euphemism for tipsy or just plain old drunk. When the film Sideways was released in Spanish, they called it Entre Copas.

*...betray my manliness and my honor: The original is "tire por el suelo mi hombría y mi honor," literally "(I might) throw my manliness and honor on the floor." Yeah, maybe so.

*I curse the faint hope that your lips lied: I got stuck on this for a while; then I remembered that the verb mentir, to lie, can be either transitive or intransitive. Thus it could mean that he's cursing himself for holding out the faint hope that she might take him back. Or it could mean he's cursing her for the lie that her lips told during their night of passion. I suspect the double entendre was intended.

Original castellano text follows. 

Estampa federal: love in a time of tyranny

This stately Di Sarli vals sung by Alberto Podestá tells a rather grim story. Explanatory notes follow the English version. 

Estampa federal*
Waltz
Music: Pedro Maffia / Sebastián Piana
Lyric: Cátulo Castillo

Composer, bandleader, and teacher Pedro Maffia was one of the most important bandoneonistas in the history of tango. His mastery of technique and phrasing, widely acknowledged as a result of his performances and recordings with the Julio De Caro Sextet, set a new standard and style for players of the instrument. He is also the composer of several seminal tangos, including Abondono, Amurado, Te Aconsejo Que Me Olvides, and Ventarrón, as well as Estampa Federal.

Se enredan en la noche tus hondas pupilas, tus labios son un broche teñido de lila. Tus sueños en los míos, fríos, fríos. Murmullo de tu miedo, quedo, quedo. Qué blancas tus palabras qué oscura tu angustia, la flor de tu esperanza qué triste, qué mustia. Se anuda en esta huida tu vida y mi vida. Amada, en la alborada, me llevo tu adiós. Ríe entre las sombras Doña Encarnación. Moños federales en tu peinetón. Bailan en la fiesta de los mazorqueros, ruedan las gavotas, giran los lanceros. Y en la algarabía de la fiesta roja, junto a tu pupila bebo la congoja de mi desazón.

Your deep, black pupils are mixed with the night, your lips are a brooch tinged with lilac.*  Your dreams in mine, cold, indifferent. The whisper of your fear, soft, soft. How bright your words, how dark your anxiety. The bloom of your hope, how sad, how withered. Your life and mine united in this flight.* Beloved, at daybreak, I receive your farewell. Doña Encarnación*  laughs in the shadows. The federalist ribbons  in your peinetón* dance at the fiesta  of the mazorqueros,*  the gavottes whirl,  the lanceros turn.* And amid the hullabaloo  of this red-draped fiesta,*  along with your pupil, I drink in the heartbreak of my disgust.

Notes 

* Estampa Federal: This historical "sketch" or "impression" (estampa) refers to the struggle between the federales, who advocated a loose confederation of states without centralized leadership, and the unitarios, who advocated a unified Argentina with Buenos Aires as its center. The country was led for nearly twenty years by federale chief General Juan Manuel de Rosas, who ruled the country with an iron fist. Rosas demanded fierce, demonstrative loyalty from every citizen, and conducted a reign of terror to intimidate and in many cases exterminate the opposition. 

*lilac: Blood red was the omnipresent symbol of the Rosas regime. Citizens were compelled to wear certain articles of red clothing at all times--waistcoats and hatbands for men, for example. Wearing blue, the color of the unitarios, was not only forbidden, but punishable by death. Lilac is purple in color, that is, a mixture of red and blue. The image of lips tinged with lilac suggests conflicting sympathies. 

*flight: Many unitario families were dispossessed and forced into exile in Brazil or Uruguay. In the first verse, two lovers plan to flee the repressive regime together, but the girl changes her mind at the last minute ("I receive your farewell"). In the second verse, they both rejoin rosista society, as reflected in their attendance at the red-draped fiesta of the mazorqueros, and the narrator bitterly watches his beloved, her hair decorated with red ribbons, dancing gavottes and lanceros with the paramilitary officers. 

*Doña Encarnación: Doña Encarnación Ezcurra (portrait, above, right) was the wife of General Rosas and also the brains behind the Mazorca, a paramilitary death squad that conducted the reign of terror during her husband's regime. Note the slogans inscribed on the portrait: "Long Live the Federales. Federation or Death. Death to the Unitarios." 

*federalist ribbons in your peinetón: The peinetón was an outsized decorative comb that upper-class ladies of the rosista period wore in their hair. They also wore compulsory red hair-ribbons (moños federales) to demonstrate allegiance to the federalist cause. In the portrait above, Doña Encarnación sets the style for the women of nation.

*mazorqueros: Members of the Mazorca. 

*gavottes, lanceros: Popular dances of the era.

*red-draped fiesta: The original text merely says "fiesta roja," literally, a red party, but Rosas required that the venue of any official function be decorated with gobs of red bunting. The mazorqueros would certainly have observed this rule, and the image also underscores the blood-thirsty character of their actions.