For me, this song is simply the best Tanturi-Campos ever recorded. My list of favourites is long and they are all vehemently competing for the crown, but in the end, Calla bandoneón always prevails.
Until Campos starts singing, you might as well pay special attention to the game of questions/statements and answers that the instruments are involved in. This is, naturally, a normal thing in tango, but in this particular song the conversational structure seems clearer to me than usual. First, various instruments respond to the bandoneón, and then, they switch roles, but anyway, you could interpret this conversation in many different ways.
And as soon as you understand the meaning of this song, see if you can recognise, like me, how the bandoneón is trying to apologise for things, justifying its melancholy, bringing up counterarguments…. of course, everybody will hear different things, but there is certainly a dialogue going on.
You can also listen to versions by José García and Juan D’Arienzo, the latter one contains the complete lyrics.
”Wait… Troilo-Marino again?!This guy is sooo repetitive!”
I know I am somewhat unfair, but I cannot get enough of this dramatic combination. In addition, En carne propia is probably one of the songs that many international dancers will dance to and leave the floor saying ”Now, that last song was really romantic, wasn’t it?”……..
There are a lot of tango lyrics about broken hearts, longing and grief, and in relation to all of that, remorse and self-reflection. The following tango, however, is about a situation that comes from the same source, but this time the message is full of anger, grudge and hatred, like Te Odio (translation coming soon).
The title is very beautiful, but at the same time also an expression that cannot be translated so easily. Literally, it would mean ‘In own flesh’. So, as far as this song is concerned, if you feel something en carne propia, it is like a strong feeling that comes back at you in revenge and subsequently crushes you. Just listen to this tango and you will understand what the title means.
*This metaphor sounds a bit weird to me, but I am sure you get the meaning anyway.
I have been translating a lot of lyrics lately that are more than anything about love and poetic misery related to it. However, another common theme is the arrabal, the (poor) neighbourhood of origin. We can recognize a lot of mixed feelings about love and women in tango, and that is also true for the arrabal.
The following song tells us about the fate of children from poor families, most likely immigrant families. Many barrios (neighbourhoods) of Buenos Aires, like La Boca, Barracas, Nueva Pompeya and San Telmo used to be full of poor European immigrants who struggled to survive in a harsh environment. If you want to understand the essence of Argentine culture, small stories of hope and tragedy in songs like Se lustra, señor are key.
In case you do not get the ending of this story: it is likely that the kid is suffering from tubercolosis, a common problem at the time and quite easy to catch for children who were working on the streets.
Let us listen to two famous singers, Ángel Vargas and Alberto Castillo.
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Shoeshine boy (Se lustra, señor)
The boy with his old clothes, with a skin damaged by the sun… life has treated him with all its toughness. On the same corner, he always shouts: “Sir, I shine your shoes better than those guys in the salon*!” I know this brave** boy’s story. One day, his father did not return home and he, without a word, made his own box and ever since, there has never been a lack of food (lit: bread).
“Sir, let me shine your shoes!” “Shoe shine, sir?” While he is looking for hope, life amasses trouble and pain. Each and every day, even when the sun burns us or when the winter cold makes our hearts freeze.
And one of these mornings, the wind of the arrabal left a strange silence over there, on the threshold. For a few days, we have not heard his call: “Sir, I shine your shoes better than those guys in the salon!” Yesterday we went to see him, and I just have got to tell you this… He looks at us, sits up and starts talking: “Mommy, come over here quickly and bring me my shoe shine box, because sir, I shine your shoes better than those guys in the salon…”
And like that, just like in this story that I have just told you, the humble soul of the arrabal accumulates itself.
*This probably does not refer to salon as in milonga. Here, it is most likely some kind of store where locals would go to have their shoes polished.
**The literal translation would be ´I know of his value´. But valor can also mean courage, and is this context the boy is courageous enough to help his family survive against all odds. So, his courage can be his personal value, too.
I am sure every tango dancer has seen pictures and videos of Carlos Gardel, but I do not think that there is widely shared knowledge about this man. Fortunately, I have never heard a DJ say something like, “This evening shall reach its climax as soon as my carefully prepared Gardel tanda starts” or an elegant tanguera ”It is only when I dance to Carlos Gardel and his fan-tastic guitars, that I reach tango heaven”…
This is something all of us should be grateful for, because you just don’t dance to this kind of dominant classic tango singers. Further worsened by the inability of many people to understand Spanish, that means talented men like Carlos Gardel, Ignacio Corsini and Agustin Magaldi do not get a lot of attention nowadays.
However, they have created countless great songs that may help us understand tango culture much better. I have got to begin somewhere, and the following typical Gardel tango is one that has been covered many times. The fine language used here can serve as an introduction to a lot of tango poetry and that is why I am surprised I am (supposedly) the first person to translate Confesión. For me the content of this classic poem is Tango 101.
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Confession (Enrique Santos Discepolo)
I lost your love and it was a conscious decision, just to save you! Now, you hate me and I am happy, withdrawing myself from the world to bewail you. The memories you will have of me shall be horrible, you will always see me beating you, like a villain. If you only knew how generous it was of me to pay like that for your good love…
Sunshine of my life! I was a complete failure and while falling I tried to push you aside, because I loved you so much… so much, that, while tumbling, I could only save you by making you hate me. Recently, after a dreadful year, I saw you passing by. I bit myself so that I could not call you. You were pretty as a picture and men would stop just to stare at you! I am not sure if he who has now got you (as a girlfriend) deserves something like this. All I know is that the cruel misery I caused you is justified by the sight of you, like a queen. Live a better life, far away from me!
Sunshine of my life! I was a complete failure and while falling I tried to push you aside, because I loved you so much… so much, that, while tumbling, I could only save you by making you hate me.
During the last few months the Troilo-Marino combination has slowly conquered a major amount of territory in my heart. I do not know why, but I guess I had to acquire a certain taste and maturity for this particular music first. I began to study the immensely strong lyrics of these songs and that way I have also become a much bigger fan of Aníbal Troilo in general, at the expense of other orchestras I used to prefer over this one. I have started to appreciate Marino more than Fiorentino now. I think his voice is much more expressive and the lyrics he chose are, in my opinion, some of the most profound and melancholic I have ever heard. The tango I am presenting to you today has also been done by Biagi, Demare and a few soloists, but I think those versions are rather weak in comparison.
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I just stood there, staring at her
After an awful year of solitude we ran into each other again, by accident. And suddenly… memories of those days, when we would sing and laugh, came to me en masse. My lips stuttered of fear, my eyes told her about my pain, and running into her caused me so much anguish that, with my throat overwhelmed, I just stood there, staring at her.
Those were all pointless paths, beaten tracks, without life, paths lined by doubts and sorrow and heartaches that only increase my suffering. I do not expect anything of my life anymore and now that I see her again it could be that, like her distracted eyes are telling me, I have killed her love forever…
(That broken dream of the past cannot flourish anymore. I have got her in front of my eyes this afternoon and now I understand that there is no-one in my sad nightfall.) She, the person I waited for, has returned but not arrived. I meet her again and she already leaves, and knowing that her farewell is my downfall she walked off, and on the corner I just stood, staring at her.
Embrujamiento 
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