Considered one the early masterpieces among tango lyrics, the lunfardo-heavy “Mano a mano” is perhaps the most famous work of Celedonio Flores—and a song with its own controversies too. By turns considered a sympathetic portrayal of women, or else male chauvinism incarnate, the tango depicts the flapper’s life in the heyday of the 1920s. Known as the Jazz Age in English, the era was a worldwide phenomenon whose anxiety-riddled excesses and boozy materialism bubbled up between the Spanish influenza at the end of the Great War in 1918, and the Great Depression of the 1930s. The flapper and her lifestyle became the symbol of the age, with her picture of liberated youth, neurotic hedonism, and clandestine debauchery.
Flores’ lyrics have been dated as early as 1920, the same year as “Milonguita,” but the song was not recorded until Gardel’s first version in 1923. (Below I also link to a killer 2012 rendition by Adriana Varela, from the great program “Encuentro en el Estudio.”) As usual, my translation follows the tune and rhythm of the original, and also draws on 1920s slang to give the flavor of the original and to better represent its subject matter. Additionally, I have emphasized some of the oddball choices in the original (such as “accountable” in the first stanza, and “information” in the last) which I read as Flores slyly tipping his hand, and showing that his portraiture is ironic and not quite to be taken at face value.
Fair and Square
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Carlos Gardel | Adriana Varela
Going crackers in my sadness, I get thinking back to you
And in my poor pariah life how good a woman you had been.
With your little flapper airs you made my nest the brighter too,
You were good to me, accountable, and I know you loved me true
Like you’d never loved another, like you’ll never love again.
The guessing game was up when you were just a poor young doll,
Giving poverty the slip back in the shabby boarding house…
Now life’s a laugh and song to you, the made girl standing tall,
And you throw your daddy’s ducats round, content to play the moll
Like a crafty kitten toying with a miserable mouse.
Today your bonnet’s all abuzz with madcap expectations,
Your girlfriends, chumps, and romeos just take you for a ride;
The nightclubs, with their millionaires and all their mad temptations,
Their jackpots and their washing out of flapper aspirations,
Keep tugging at your poor girl’s little heart from deep inside.
I’ve got no scrap to thank you for, fair and square we ended;
I don’t mind what you’ve done, or what you’re doing, or shall do…
I believe I’ve paid you back for any favors you extended,
And if I’ve left some little debt forgotten unintended,
Just charge it to that chump’s account next time the bill is due.
Meanwhile, may your winnings, your poor momentary winnings,
Be a steady stream of riches and a boisterous bacchanale…
May the bigshot who supports you never see his bankroll thinning,
May the pushers in the nightclubs ever greet you with a grinning,
And the fellas say about you: Now there goes a decent gal.
And tomorrow, when you hit the curb like last year’s decorations,
And your poor old heart is left without a hope, without a dime,
If you need a helping hand, or you’re short on information,
You recall your pal who’d risk his skin without one hesitation
To help you out as best he can, whenever comes the time.
Mano a mano (1923)
Lyrics: Celedonio Flores
Music: Carlos Gardel & José Razzano
Rechiflado en mi tristeza, te evoco y veo que has sido
en mi pobre vida paria sólo una buena mujer.
Tu presencia de bacana puso calor en mi nido,
fuiste buena, consecuente, y yo sé que me has querido
como no quisiste a nadie, como no podrás querer…
Se dio el juego de remanye cuando vos, pobre percanta,
gambeteabas la pobreza en la casa de pensión…
Hoy sos toda una bacana, la vida te ríe y canta,
Ios morlacos del otario los jugás a la marchanta
como juega el gato maula con el mísero ratón.
Hoy tenés el mate lleno de infelices ilusiones,
te engrupieron los otarios, las amigas y el gavión;
la milonga, entre magnates, con sus locas tentaciones,
donde triunfan y claudican milongueras pretensiones,
se te ha entrado muy adentro en tu pobre corazón.
Nada debo agradecerte, mano a mano hemos quedado;
no me importa lo que has hecho, lo que hacés ni lo que harás…
Los favores recibidos creo habértelos pagado
y, si alguna deuda chica sin querer se me ha olvidado,
en la cuenta del otario que tenés se la cargás.
Mientras tanto, que tus triunfos, pobres triunfos pasajeros,
sean una larga fila de riquezas y placer;
que el bacán que te acamala tenga pesos duraderos,
que te abrás de las paradas con cafishos milongueros
y que digan los muchachos: Es una buena mujer.
Y mañana, cuando seas descolado mueble viejo
y no tengas esperanzas en tu pobre corazón,
si precisás una ayuda, si te hace falta un consejo,
acordate de este amigo que ha de jugarse el pellejo
pa’ayudarte en lo que pueda cuando llegue la ocasión.