SIEMPRE ES CARNAVAL (It's Always Carnival) Fresedo/Ray, 1937

SIEMPRE ES CARNAVAL (It's always Carnaval)
Tango, 1937
Music: Osvaldo Fresedo
Lyrics: Emilio Fresedo

English-language version with explanatory notes by Michael Krugman. All Rights Reserved.

{Photo: In costume for Carnaval, Buenos Aires 1940.]

¡Cuántos viven disfrazados sin saber que así quedaron! ¡Cuántos se oyen sin reír! Este mundo es escenario de un gran cine continuado que nos hace consumir. Cuánto, al fin, se macanea, ya que nunca es todo cierto, y es un juego el acertar: “La señora está indispuesta” o “ha salido hace un momento”; y el esposo se hace el muerto si es que vienen a cobrar. Y siempre es carnaval. Van cayendo serpentinas, unas gruesas y otras finas que nos hacen tambalear. Y cuando en tu disfraz la careta queda ausente en tu cara de inocente, todo el año es carnaval. ¡Y viva el carnaval! Vos ves siempre lucecitas. Sos la eterna mascarita que gozás con engañar. Y cuando en tu disfraz la careta queda ausente en tu cara de inocente, todo el año es carnaval. ¡Qué tuviste una fortuna! ¡Qué de oro fue tu cuna! Que esto cuesta: ¡Qué se yo! Las mujeres y los hombres por tu amor tocan la luna y otras cosas más por vos… ¡Y si hablás de tu familia!… tu pretérito imperfecto lo pasaste como un rey. Yo quisiera que me digas, y dejando un poco de esto, si la cuenta vos has hecho ¿cuántos pesos me debés?

How many are living in costume,* without realizing they stayed that way! How many are never heard to laugh!* This world is the stage of a grand all-night movie that makes us want to spend and spend.* How much, in the end, one lies, since it’s never completely true, and one can never be certain: “Madame is indisposed” or “She left a moment ago”; and the husband plays dead if they come to collect a bill. And it’s always carnival. Streamers keep falling, some thick, some thin, making us stagger. And though you're in your costume, the mask comes off your clueless expression: it's carnival all year round. Long live carnival! You're always seeing fairy-lights.* You’re the eternal masquerader who takes pleasure in deceit. And though you're in your costume, the mask comes off your clueless expression: it’s carnival all year round. What a fortune you had! Born in a golden cradle! * What did this cost: What do I know? Women and men touch the moon and a few other things for your love… And when you talk about your family…! your "past imperfect"* you spent it like a king! I’d like you to tell me, and subtracting a little bit, if you’ve tallied the bill: how many pesos do you owe me?*

 * in costume: The annual celebration of Carnaval falls during the two weeks between the Feast of the Epiphany and the first day of Lent. For many years it was a time of wild festivity in Buenos Aires, including parades, dances, and parties. Today the holiday is marked via the closing of stores and public institutions on certain days, but it is no longer celebrated publicly.
    Costumes, often including masks, were an important feature of Carnaval. The lyric of Siempre es Carnaval sardonically asserts that many people fail to take their costumes off at the end of Carnaval, then forget that they are "living in a costume" (or disguise). Hence Carnaval-like frivolity, obliviousness, and the associated tendency to spend beyond one's means, persist all year long. "It's always Carnaval."

* never heard to laugh: Carnaval costumes were meant to be amusing, to make others laugh. When, without realizing it, people are in costume all year round, it ceases to be amusing, and no one laughs.

*spend and spend: The verb here is consumir, which could also be translated as "to consume." Hollywood movies were popular and widely distributed in Argentina, bringing the vision and the values a more affluent society with access to an endless stream of consumer goods.

* the fairy-lights: Probably a reference to the elaborate displays of lamparillas (small light bulbs) that were strung across the avenues of the parade route during Carnaval. (Photo, right: Carnaval 1940).

* born in a golden cradle: The Spanish expression nacido en una cuna de oro ("born in a golden cradle") is equivalent to the English "born with a silver spoon in his/her mouth."

* "past imperfect": In the Spanish dialect spoken by most Argentines, the idiomatic second-person form of address (voseo) omits the past imperfect tense employed in peninsular Spanish; the past perfect is used instead. Hence the speaker who uses the imperfect is perceived as excessively formal or snobbish. The narrator refers to his wealthy companion's childhood as "your past imperfect," thereby reinforcing the image of its privileged or pretentious character. In the following line, he himself uses the past perfect idiomatically: lo pasaste como un rey, "you spent it (i.e., your childhood) like a king."