This week’s lyric is an update to “Rondando tu esquina,” a tango which has been called the very distillation or essence of the yearning love song. Besides adding the second verse which was missing before, I have improved the translation (one of the first I made in this run) to make it more singable. The text here shows the standard lyric; Roberto Chanel changed a few lines when he recorded it with Osvaldo Pugliese.
With lyrics by Enrique Cadícamo and music by the great singer Charlo—who wrote a handful of sophisticated tunes, including “Fueye” and “El viejo vals”—the song was not only a tango hit in the 1940s, but became popular throughout Latin America in a variety of other stylings. It has been recorded in every decade since its release, with more than 60 versions made in Mexico alone. The link below features Charlo singing the song himself (including the second verse), with an unspecified orchestra, circa 1952.
Rondando tu esquina (1945)
Musica: Charlo
Letra: Enrique Cadícamo
Esta noche tengo ganas de buscarla,
de borrar lo que ha pasado y perdonarla.
Ya no me importa el que diran
ni de las cosas que hablarán…
¡Total la gente siempre habla!
Yo no pienso más que en ella a toda hora…
Es terrible esta pasión devoradora.
Y ella siempre sin saber,
sin siquiera sospechar
mis deseos de volver…
¿Que me has dado, vida mia,
que ando triste noche y dia?
Rondando siempre tu esquina,
mirando siempre tu casa,
y esta pasión que lastima,
y este dolor que no pasa…
¿Hasta cuando iré sufriendo
el tormento de tu amor?
Este pobre corazón que no la olvida
me la nombra con los labios de su herida
y ahondando más su sinsabor
la mariposa del dolor
cruza en la noche de mi vida.
Compañeros, hoy es noche de verbena…
Sin embargo, yo no puedo con mi pena,
y al saber que ya no está,
solo, triste y sin amor
me pregunto sin cesar.
Hanging Round Your Corner
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Charlo
Here tonight I have an urge to go and find her,
To clear it up, forgive, and put it all behind her.
It doesn’t matter what they say,
Or how they talk and talk away…
They’re always talking, people, aren’t they!
All I think about is her at every hour…
What a devil is this passion that devours!
And she might never even learn,
Never guess as we’re apart
All I want is to return…
Life of mine, what have you brought me,
That night and day now has so distraught me?
Hanging always round your corner,
Looking always at your house there,
And all this passion that’s such torture,
And this despond that sticks around me…
How much longer must I suffer
In the torment of this love?
This poor heart of mine that can’t forget about her
By the wound she left keeps calling to her louder,
And sinking deeper into loss,
The moth of grieving flies across
The night my life has been without her.
Friends, tonight the revels last until tomorrow…
But, for me, I can no longer take my sorrow,
And at the thought that she is gone,
Sadly, lovelessly, alone,
I keep asking on and on…