Even though I consider Osvaldo Fresedo’s music with Roberto Ray the absolute best period of his career, there are also some really nice, upbeat tracks with Ray’s immediate successor, Ricardo Ruiz. Likewise, as a DJ, the music with Ray is part of my staple, but I also enjoy throwing some Ruiz tracks at people, because even though it’s not really the best-known music, it’s a style right from the heart of the Golden Age, and what few people know is that several of these tracks have excellent, dreamy poetry. One of the best examples is Más allá, a usual tale of the sorrows of love, but with a beautiful metaphor of the afterlife and eternity. This lyric is one of the many gems written by José María Contursi, a somewhat tragic man who dedicated pretty much all of his poetry to, yes, Gricel, his unattainable lover. I will soon dedicate a post to both of them over at Tango Archive. In the meantime, enjoy this translation!

Más allá (Beyond)
Lyrics: José María Contursi
Composition: Joaquín Mauricio Mora

Han pasado tres años ya
y no sé qué será de ti.
Me parece escuchar, tan cerca de mí
tu voz bañada en llanto.
Es horrible vivir así
sepultado en la oscuridad,
de mis ojos sin luz
que no te han de ver jamás.

Three years have already gone by
and I wonder what has become of you.
I seem to hear, so close to me,
your sorrow-soaked voice.
It’s awful to live like this,
buried in the darkness
of my lightless eyes,
which shall never see you again.

Más allá donde el viento
tal vez, un amor escondió,
ha podido sus penas contar
mi corazón.
Más allá de la muerte y de Dios,
óyeme, más allá…
puede ser que me aleje de ti
la eternidad.

Beyond, where the wind
perhaps hid a love,
my heart could
pour out its sorrows.
Beyond death and God,
listen to me, in the beyond,
I hope eternity may
finally distance you from me.

Unsung part:

(Cuántas veces la soledad
mis tristezas acarició,
y queriendo olvidar
busqué en el alcohol
calmar mis inquietudes.
Pero el alma se doblegó
recordándote más y más,
y hoy me mata saber
que no te veré jamás.)

(How many times has
loneliness caressed my suffering,
and hoping to forget,
I tried drowning my
despair in alcohol.
But my soul surrendered,
yearning for you even more,
and now what torments me,
is that I will never see you again.)