Enrique Cadícamo’s 1930 tango “Anclao en París” was a hit for Carlos Gardel (one of whose regular guitarists, Guillermo Barbieri, supplied the music). The song delves into the Bohemian themes of the early tangos, and with its setting in Paris, makes a kind of homage to the tramp, and to the realist plays and operas that provided the tango with its early artistic models.
Cadícamo penned the lyrics while he was away from Buenos Aires himself, during an extended visit to Barcelona; and for him and Gardel, who was often on tour as well, it was no doubt a personal expression of longing for home. Two years later, the lyricist was clearly still haunted by his own song, and wrote “Madame Ivonne” as a kind of sequel, echoing several lines and images (such as the snow falling, a rarity in Buenos Aires) from “Anclao en París.”
Anchored in Paris
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Carlos Gardel
All washed up from living from jamboree to bender,
I’m anchored, Buenos Aires, in Paris on the strand…
Fallen into troubles, on the run from lenders,
Here I’m thinking of you from in this distant land.
I sit and watch the snowfall, drifting soft and turning,
From behind my window that views the boulevard;
The reddish lights below me, with a tone of burning,
Smolder there like pupils of alien regard.
My distant Buenos Aires,
How pretty must you be!
Ten long years it’s been now,
Since I sailed off to sea…
Here within this faubourg,
Nostalgic old Montmartre,
I feel your memory sinking
Its dagger in my heart.
How your sidewalks must have changed now, Corrientes!
Suipacha, Esmeralda, with outskirts all your own!
Someone lately told me you’ve been booming plenty,
With streets that run diagonal, the way that you have grown…
You have no idea how I want to see you!
I am out here stranded, no money and no faith…
And who knows, any night now, death at last could nab me,
And so long, Buenos Aires, I’ll never see your face.
Anclao en París (1930)
Music: Guillermo Barbieri
Lyrics: Enrique Cadícamo
Tirao por la vida de errante bohemio
Estoy, Buenos Aires, anclao en París
Cubierto de males, bandeado de apremios
Te evoco desde este lejano país.
Contemplo la nieve que cae blandamente
Desde mi ventana, que da al bulevar
Las luces rojizas, con tonos murientes
Parecen pupilas de extraño mirar.
Lejano Buenos Aires,
¡Qué lindo que has de estar!
Ya van para diez años
que me viste zarpar,
Aquí, en este Montmartre,
faubourg sentimental
Yo siento que el recuerdo
me clava su puñal.
¡Cómo habrá cambiado tu calle Corrientes!
¡Suipacha, Esmeralda, tu mismo arrabal!
Alguien me ha contado que estás floreciente
Y un juego de calles se da en diagonal...
¡No sabés las ganas que tengo de verte!
Aquí estoy varado, sin plata y sin fe...
Quien sabe una noche, me encane la muerte
Y chau Buenos Aires, no te vuelva a ver.