Homero Manzi brought to tango lyrics a certain genius for scene painting and portraiture, giving a realness of place and a sense of tender nostalgia to his songs. Among his greatest creations are “Malena” and “Sur,” both of them portraits of the tango itself, as well as this number, “Barrio de tango,” which evokes the old neighborhood of Pompeya where Manzi spent his early teenage years. The scenery he pictures here is notable above all for its lack of glamour. He describes train tracks, dogs barking, a shadowy doorway, an old grocery store… it is one neighborhood, at one point in time, where the immigrants of Europe settled, and where the first strains of the tango began to drift over the streets.
As for the local specifics, Nueva Pompeya lies on the southside of Buenos Aires, along the former floodplains of the Riachuelo. In the 1910s, a large embankment was built to protect the area from flooding, atop which the local train line ran. Before the district was given its current name (in 1900, after the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei), the area was known as the Barrio de las ranas (Frog district)—an appellation for which nearby Parque Patricios is still remembered.
Tango Barrio
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Roberto Goyeneche (orq. Troilo)
A small chip of a barrio, down in Pompeya,
Beside the flood wall, within a doze…
A lantern swings above the railway crossing,
The farewell mysteries a freight train sows…
And the dogs out barking at the moon there,
A door-gate hiding love all for its own.
And the toads out croaking in the lagoon there,
And in the distance, the voice of the bandoneón…
Tango barrio, moonlight and mystery,
Your distant roadways, how do they get on?
All those old friends I can scarcely remember—
How did they turn out, where have they gone?
Tango barrio, say, what ever came of
That blonde girl Juana, whom once I did love so?
Does she know I suffer, to think about her,
Since the night I left her, so long ago?
Tango barrio, moonlight and mystery,
Within my memories, I see you again!
A chorus of whistles down at the corner…
The card game filling up the little store.
And the drama of the pallid lady neighbor
Who as the train went by would shut her door.
So I remember your nights now, tango barrio,
The flatbeds rolling into the loading zone,
And the moonlight splashing on the mud lanes
And in the distance, the voice of the bandoneón.
Barrio de tango (1942)
Music: Aníbal Troilo
Lyrics: Homero Manzi
Un pedazo de barrio, allá en Pompeya,
durmiéndose al costado del terraplén.
Un farol balanceando en la barrera
y el misterio de adiós que siembra el tren.
Un ladrido de perros a la luna.
El amor escondido en un portón.
Y los sapos redoblando en la laguna
y a lo lejos la voz del bandoneón.
Barrio de tango, luna y misterio,
calles lejanas, ¿cómo estarán?
Viejos amigos que hoy ni recuerdo,
¿qué se habrán hecho, dónde estarán?
Barrio de tango, qué fue de aquella,
Juana, la rubia, que tanto amé.
¿Sabrá que sufro, pensando en ella,
desde la tarde que la dejé?
Barrio de tango, luna y misterio,
¡desde el recuerdo te vuelvo a ver!
Un coro de silbidos allá en la esquina.
El codillo llenando el almacén.
Y el dramón de la pálida vecina
que ya nunca salió a mirar el tren.
Así evoco tus noches, barrio ’e tango,
con las chatas entrando al corralón
y la luna chapaleando sobre el fango
y a lo lejos la voz del bandoneón.