The great Argentine folk singer and author Atahualpa Yupanqui worked in a country tradition that ran parallel to the downtown nightclub culture of the tango, but he made a crossover hit when he added his music to a gaucho poem written in the 1930s by Uruguayan poet and storyteller Romildo Risso. The result is the milonga “Los ejes de mi carreta,” a song which can become either a somber country tune or a dance hall romp depending on the treatment of the musicians.
The lyrics here show a different tradition than the one the tango developed, and they evoke the agrarian world of Argentina’s interior. When the milonga became a popular subgenre in the 1930s and 40s, many drew their inspiration from this scenery, and likewise from the earlier genre known as milonga campera or pampeana (country milonga), to which this tune partially belongs. The repetition of each phrase in the song creates a cadence similar to the blues, and here it aptly underscores the image of the cart-driver talking to himself as he plies the long and lonely road.
Two versions are linked to below: one, a riveting solo performance by Yupanqui accompanying himself on the guitar; the other, the incomparable orchestra arrangement by Aníbal Troilo with Edmundo Rivero singing.
(Note: My 2006 translation of this song, which has circulated online for many years uncredited, uses the same idiosyncratic title that appears here.)
The Axles of My Wagon Wheels
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Atahualpa Yupanqui | Edmundo Rivero
Because I don’t grease up the axles
They call me a careless lout…
Because I don’t grease up the axles
They call me a careless lout,
But for me, if I like them creaking,
Why’d I want to grease them now…
But for me, if I like them creaking,
Why’d I want to grease them now.
It’s all so boring and tiring
To keep to the beaten trail…
It’s all so boring and tiring
To keep to the beaten trail,
To follow the roads I’m riding
With nothing to cheer me there…
To follow the roads I’m riding
With nothing to cheer me there.
Ain’t got no need for the silence,
I’ve got no one to think about…
Ain’t got no need for the silence,
I’ve got no one to think about,
I used to, but long behind me,
And I ain’t got no one now…
I used to, but long behind me,
And I ain’t got no one now.
The axles of my wagon wheels—
I’m never going to grease them down…
Los ejes de mi carreta (1946)
Music: Atahualpa Yupanqui
Lyrics: Romildo Risso
Porque no engraso los ejes
Me llaman abandonao…
Porque no engraso los ejes
Me llaman abandonao,
Si a mí me gusta que suenen
Pa´ qué los quiero engrasaos…
Si a mí me gusta que suenen
Pa´ qué los quiero engrasaos.
Es demasiado aburrido
Seguir y seguir la huella…
Es demasiado aburrido
Seguir y seguir la huella,
Andar y andar los caminos
Sin nada que lo entretenga…
Andar y andar los caminos
Sin nada que lo entretenga.
No necesito silencio
Yo no tengo en quién pensar…
No necesito silencio
Yo no tengo en quién pensar,
Tenía, pero hace mucho
Áura, ya no tengo más…
Tenía, pero hace mucho
Áura, ya no tengo más.
Los ejes de mi carreta
Nunca los voy a engrasar…