Hard times call for straight talk, and the early tangos by Enrique Santos Discépolo deliver the goods with their unflinching pictures of desperation. “Yira, yira,” the greatest song of his early phase, wields its trashcan lid of street slang like a shield against sentimentality, conjuring up a grim humor that borders on the horrifying. This gritty tango showcases his unique penchant for satire, at once telling the truth with his exaggerated words, while effecting a certain emotional release through a sarcastically triumphant tune.
Discépolo, foremost among all the tango poets, begs comparison to major literary figures. He has often been called the Schopenhauer of the tango; his lyrics bear a certain resemblance to T. S. Eliot and to Leopardi in their acrobatic pessimism; and more than other songwriters, he brings to life the “poetry of objects” (one wants to say trinkets) that was among the hallmarks of Modernism. Yet the exasperated imagery of “Yira, yira,” ominous as it may be for a song composed in 1929 (if not earlier), remains firmly in the line of social comedy, drawing less on the gothic spleen of Baudelaire than on the poignant absurdities of Charlie Chaplin. The era of social unrest that soon arose during the Great Depression in the 1930s makes “Yira, yira” seem like an especially prescient work. Celebrated nowadays for its voice of social protest, the song in its own time was, like other great tangos of the 1920s, a brave gesture in defiance of frivolity, portraying the underdogs of a world which was about to come apart at the seams.
The film clip linked to below is an excerpt from the 1930 movie Así cantaba Carlos Gardel, one of the first sound films made in Argentina, directed by Eduardo Morera, and featuring ten shorts of the singer performing. The banter between Gardel and Discépolo, introducing this number, ends with a jab at the singer’s age:
Gardel: Hey, Enrique, how’s it going?
Discépolo: Fine, and you?
G: Tell me, Enrique, what did you want to accomplish with the tango “Yira, yira”?
D: With “Yira, yira”?
G: That’s the one.
D: A song about loneliness and desperation.
G: Man, that’s just what I understood.
D: That’s why you sing it so admirably.
G: But the character, he’s a good man, isn’t he?
D: Yes… He’s a man who’s been living with a decent hope in brotherhood, for forty years. And suddenly, one day, when he’s forty, he wakes up to the fact that men are beasts.
G: And he says such bitter things…
D: Carlos, you can’t expect him to say amusing things—a man who waited forty years to wake up?
Round She Goes
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Carlos Gardel
When your luck pulls a floozy,
Leavin’ you hangin’
And gives you the slip…
When you’re well down the road there
To nowhere, out’ your wits…
When you ain’t got no more faith,
Nor yesterday’s tea leaves
To dry in the sun;
When you bust your boots open
Seekin’ and scopin’
That buck for a meal…
Then the whole world’s indifference,
Its muteness and deafness,
Will hit you for real…
You’ll see it’s all just a swindle,
You’ll see there ain’t any love,
That in the world it’s worth nothing…
Round she goes, round she goes!
Although your whole life’s a breakdown,
Although you’re eaten by grief,
Don’t you expect any handouts,
Or a hand, or relief.
When you been out ringin’ doorbells
And all of the batteries
Have up and gone dry,
When you been seeking a friend’s arms
For a hug as you die…
When you been drudging for years,
And they just throw you out,
The same as with me…
When you spy them beside you,
Eyeing the clothing
You’re leaving behind…
You just remember this poor sucker,
Who one day just lost it,
And howled out his mind!
Yira, yira (1929)
Music & Lyrics:
Enrique Santos Discépolo
Cuando la suerte qu’es grela
Fayando y fayando
Te largue, parao;
Cuando estés bien en la vía
Sin rumbo, desesperao;
Cuando no tengas ni fe,
Ni yerba de ayer
Secándose al sol;
Cuando rajés los tamangos
Buscando ese mango
Que te haga morfar…
La indiferencia del mundo
Que es sordo y es mudo
Recién sentirás…
Verás que todo es mentira,
Verás que nada es amor,
Que al mundo nada le importa…
Yira!… Yira!…
Aunque te quiebre la vida,
Aunque te muerda un dolor,
No esperes nunca una ayuda
Ni una mano, ni un favor…
Cuando estén secas las pilas
De todos los timbres
Que vos apretás,
Buscando un pecho fraterno
Para morir abrazao…
Cuando te dejen tirao
Después de cinchar
Lo mismo que a mí;
Cuando manyés que a tu lado
Se prueban la ropa
Que vas a dejar…
Te acordarás de este otario
Que un día, cansado,
¡Se puso a ladrar!