Carlos Gardel - Volver
Gardel was born in France. His parents were not married and
his father denied the child was his. Mother and child moved to South America,
to Buenos Aires, when he was two years old, possibly to escape the stigma of
being an unmarried mother.
Gardel was good looking, a talented song-writer and had a
great baritone voice. He made films, had many lovers and was famous for the
tango. It is a sexy dance and he was the right man to sell it.
Like many famous singers, he died in a plane crash. In 1935,
the plane he was travelling in crashed in Colombia. Millions
of Gardel's fans throughout Latin America went into mourning. Hordes came to
pay their respects as his body was taken from Colombia through New York City
and Rio de Janeiro. Thousands paid homage during the two days he lay in state
in Montevideo, the city in which his mother lived at the time. Gardel's body
was buried in Buenos Aires.
This is Volver ... you can see the video here
Volver by
Carlos Gardel
I can almost see the flicker
Of the lights that in the
distance
Mark the way of my
returning…
They’re the very ones that
lit up,
Their reflections pale and
misted,
Many hours of deep pain.
Though it was not what I
wanted,
First love makes one always
come back again.
The quiet [age-old] street
where once the echo told me:
Her life is yours, her love
is yours to earn,
Under the stars that
mockingly look on me,
And now in their
indifference see me return.
Return… with my forehead all
wrinkled,
My temples turned silver by
time’s falling snow…
To feel… that one’s life is
a twinkle,
Twenty years hardly reckon,
And two fevered eyes beckon,
In shadows forestall you
And seek you and call you.
To live… with the soul
firmly clinging
To one sweet remembrance
That makes me weep so.
I am frightened of the
meeting
With the past that is
returning
To confront my life all
over.
I am frightened of the night
When my dreams are linked
and fleeting
And old mem’ries come to
stay.
And yet the trav’ler who’s
fleeing
Sooner or later must stop on
the way…
And though oblivion, which
destroys all being,
Has killed my old hopes,
ripping them apart,
Yet I keep hidden a humble
hopeful glimmer
That is the only fortune
there is in my heart.
Yo
adivino el parpadeo
de las luces que a lo lejos
van marcando mi retorno.
Son las mismas que alumbraron
con sus pálidos reflejos
hondas horas de dolor.
Y aunque no quise el regreso
siempre se vuelve al primer amor.
La vieja calle donde me cobijo
tuya es su vida tuyo es su querer.
Bajo el burlón mirar de las estrellas
que con indiferencia hoy me ven volver.
Volver con la frente marchita
las nieves del tiempo platearon mi sien.
Sentir que es un soplo la vida
que veinte años no es nada
que febril la mirada
errante en las sombras
te busca y te nombra.
Vivir con el alma aferrada
a un dulce recuerdo
que lloro otra vez.
Tengo miedo del encuentro
con el pasado que vuelve
a enfrentarse con mi vida.
Tengo miedo de las noches
que pobladas de recuerdos
encadenen mi soñar.
Pero el viajero que huye
tarde o tempranode tiene su andar.
Y aunque el olvido que todo destruye
haya matado mi vieja ilusión,
guardo escondida una esperanza humilde
que es toda la fortuna de mi corazón.
Volver con la frente marchita
las nieves del tiempo platearon mi sien.
Sentir que es un soplo la vida
que veinte años no es nada
que febril la mirada
errante en las sombras
te busca y te nombra.
Vivir con el alma aferrada
a un dulce recuerdo
que lloro otra vez.
And here's Gardel singing Mi Buenos Aires Querido, the poem on Page 33 of Sueños.
This is a longer version.
Comments
Post a Comment