The countrified milonga “Campo afuera” belongs to that small hit-squad of songs that expresses a sense of vengeance after leave-taking—the bad breakup songs, as I like to imagine them. These tunes don’t usually look too gracious on paper; but in their assertion of equal suffering (“You’ll cry as much as I do”) and their voicing of recovered self-esteem with a kind of vengeance, they have a surprisingly positive effect. Dramatically they pose a novel situation, presenting a uniquely conflicted variation on nostalgia. And sometimes they even deliver what other songs cannot reach—emotional resolution. Breaking their bitter smile, they clear the air within their miniature world of song.
Perhaps the most obvious example of this subset of songs is the tango “Humillación,” whose tune, like that of “Campo afuera,” was composed by Rodolfo Biagi. And Homero Manzi, besides writing the words here, also has another, more major breakup tune to his credit: his famous rewrite of the old waltz “Desde el alma.”
New Pastures
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Teófilo Ibáñez (orq. Biagi)
I know that you’ve put me behind you;
I know that you’ve gone away now.
I know that whatever I say now,
Nothing’s going to change your mind.
I know that there’s nothing before me
But to loose the gates hereafter,
And to ride out towards new pastures
Just to leave this all behind.
You see how I’m left in sadness
By your two eyes’ deceiving.
You see, I have reaped my grieving
Having tilled your loneliness.
Who knows, if to see me so distant,
You’ll be smitten with regretting.
Who knows… but I am betting
You’ll be crying in the end.
When my hunch was you forgot me,
When I saw you had skedaddled,
I was set to see you saddled
With a last rawhide of hope.
And to see you someone different,
My companion never after,
I struck out to seek new pastures,
Leaving love to hold the rope.
I don’t want to go off boasting
That I’m over you to pride me,
Knowing you’ll stay right beside me
With a grudge’s smoldering burn.
But if we’re condemned to remember
The past as our repentance,
We shall both serve out that sentence
As we suffer each in turn.
Campo afuera (1939)
Music: Rodolfo Biagi
Lyrics: Homero Manzi
Ya sé que me has olvidado.
Ya sé que te fuiste lejos.
Ya sé que con mis consejos
no te voy a enderezar.
Ya sé que no hay más destino
que abrir todas las tranqueras
y galopar campo afuera
para poder olvidar.
Ya ves, me han dejado triste
tus ojos engañadores.
Ya ves, coseché dolores
al arar tu soledad.
No sé si al verme tan lejos
tendrás arrepentimientos.
No sé… pero lo presiento
que al fin me vas a llorar.
Cuando palpité tu olvido,
cuando vi que estabas ida
quise amarrarte a mi vida
con un tiento de ilusión.
Y al comprender que eras otra,
que no eras mi compañera,
busqué rumbear campo afuera
para engañar el amor.
No quiero alardear de fuerte
¡diciendo que te he olvidado!
Sé que estarás a mi lado
caliente como un rencor.
Pero si existe el castigo
de recordar lo pasado,
ese castigo obligado
lo sufriremos los dos.