Mysteries of "Manoblanca"

On Rick McGarrey's site, Tango and Chaos, there's a very creditable English-language version of the lyrics to Manoblanca, the romantic portrait of a Buenos Aires cart-driver that was originally recorded by the Two Angels, D'Agostino and Vargas, in 1941. When I first read it, there were a few bits that puzzled me, however, so I resolved to do my own version and a bit of tango decoding, just for fun. I don't know, maybe it was a fool's errand, too geeky to be believed. But I did it, and since it's done, I publish it here, with explanatory notes as indicated. Maybe it adds something to our understanding of the song. See what you think.

Manoblanca ("White-hand")
Tango 1941
Música: Antonio De Bassi
Letra: Homero Manzi

Dónde vas carrerito del este castigando tu yunta de ruanos, y mostrando en la chata celeste las dos iniciales pintadas a mano. Reluciendo la estrella de bronce claveteada en la suela de cuero, dónde vas carrerito del Once, cruzando ligero las calles del Sur. ¡Porteñito!... ¡Manoblanca!... Vamos ¡fuerza, que viene barranca! ¡Manoblanca!... ¡Porteñito! ¡Fuerza! ¡vamos, que falta un poquito! ¡Bueno! ¡bueno!... ¡Ya salimos!... Ahora sigan parejo otra vez, que esta noche me esperan sus ojos en la Avenida Centenera y Tabaré. Dónde vas carrerito porteño con tu chata flamante y coqueta, con los ojos cerrados de sueño y un gajo de ruda detrás de la oreja. El orgullo de ser bien querido se adivina en tu estrella de bronce, carrerito del barrio del Once que vuelves trotando para el corralón.

Where are you going, cart-driver from the east, urging onward your team of roans and showing on the sky-blue wagon the two initials painted by hand?* With the studded bronze star gleaming on the leather harness,* where are you going, cart-driver from Once, crossing swiftly the streets of the South? Porteñito!... Manoblanca!...* C’mon, pull, ‘cos here comes a hill! Manoblanca!... Porteñito!... Pull! C’mon, we’re almost there! Good! Good!... We made it!... Now give me some more of the same, because tonight her eyes they await me at the corner of Centenera and Tabaré. Where are you going, carrerito porteño, with your snazzy, freshly-painted wagon, your eyes closed as if dreaming, and for luck, a sprig of rue behind one ear.* The pride of being well-loved is foretold in your star of bronze, carrerito of the barrio of Once, who comes trotting back to the timberyard.*

NOTES:

* sky blue wagon...initials painted by hand. The horse-drawn, flatbed cart or chata (literally, "flat") was a typical feature of life in Buenos Aires from the mid-1800s until the early 20th century. These simple wagons were often elaborately decorated with colorful geometric or floral designs and the name or initials of the operator. Those decorations are said to be the origin of the fileteado style of lettering and decoration that is seen to this day on many Buenos Aires signs. The photo at the top of the page depicts a one-horse chata being used to transport people, but it's probably more or less the same as the cart in the song, right down to the decorative paint and the hand-painted initials "J C" on the upper rail.

* Studded bronze star...leather harness. Thesense of this poetic phrase depends somewhat on how it is parsed in Spanish. My take on it is:

Reluciendo (Gleaming)...
la estrella de bronce claveteada (the studded bronze star)...
en la suela de cuero (on the leather strap or sole)...

Or, in idiomatic English, "With the studded bronze star gleaming on the leather strap/sole, where are you going, cart-driver from Once, as you swiftly cross the streets of the South."

And what is the mysterious leather suela, the strap or sole? Una suela can be the sole of a shoe, or it can be any stout leather strap. So it might be that the cart-driver has a studded-bronze star on the sole of his boot or shoe as Rick McGarrey speculates, although I've seen no historical example of such a thing. It seems more likely to me that the star gleams on the "face-piece," a part of the harness seen in the drawing at the right, which actually is shaped very much like the sole of a shoe. Alternately, the decorative studded-bronze star might have been on the "saddle" of the harness, like the studded heart that hangs from the saddle at the right. (Click to enlarge.)

In the end, I avoided this issue entirely, translating suela more generally, as harness, same as Rick McGarrey, because the word suela almost certainly refers to some part of the harness. But I had to do my little Tango Decoder two-step before I settled on that.

* Porteñito... Manoblanca: The horses are named Manoblanca ("White-Hand") and Porteñito (Little Porteño).

* a sprig of rue behind one ear. Ruda, rue, is an herb to which magical protective or curative powers are sometimes attributed. Here it seems to act as a lucky charm for the cart-driver as he goes to meet his lady-love.

* timberyard: corralón. I know, it sounds like this would be a big corral. And of course a corral is a place where you put horses. But the reality is that the main employers of the arrabal were blacksmiths and timberyards, and in Argentina a corralón is just that, a timberyard. When, at the end of the work day, you drive a horse-drawn chata to a corralón, as do the protagonists of both this song and of No te apures Carablanca,  it's quite clear that you are driving a flatbed wagon to the timberyard. Same goes for Cadícamo's lyric for Tres Esquinas, with the famous last line, Y bajo el cielo de luna llena, duermen los chatas del corralón  (And under the full moon sky sleep the flatbed wagons of the timberyard).

 

 

SPANISH LYRICS TEXT

English lyrics text

Comments

[Dmitry Pruss]

White-hands as in, white fore-legs?

[Leo BEKER]

In the Buenos Aires of my youth, cart horses where often decorated with leather stars with bronze nails. Either on the front or in the chest. The quality of the leather was the same it was used for shoe soles. And yes, white-hands as in white fore-legs.