The lyric of “Muchacho” by Celedonio Flores partakes of that most ancient of poetic modes, the put-down. Here we see the poet turning his satirical wits against the figure who is usually on the periphery in his other songs—the stuck-up son of privilege. Not is the attitude one without deep roots in the popular song of Argentina: according to some sources, the original milonga campera (country milonga) began as a campfire entertainment among gauchos, who over the repeating rhythms of an elementary guitar exercise would improvise insults at each other.
As always in a Flores lyric, we get two portraits at once in this song, the subject as well as the speaker. Here, the blue-blooded son of wealth, with his passive coolness, drifting through life half-asleep, is contrasted alongside the gritty, emotive, resentful guy of the streets, who speaks throughout this tango with charisma and condescending humor. My translation here strives to capture the various degrees of sarcasm in the speaker’s voice, unpacking his mockery (one might haughtily address a servant as “muchacho”) and his lampooning of formality as he changes verb tenses slightly in the chorus.
Note: The information in the link below is incorrect, but the audio is right :) Ángel Vargas recorded “Muchacho” again with a trio in 1954.
Dear Fellow
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Ángel Vargas (orq. Ángel D’Agostino)
Dear fellow,
Who because of fortune’s favor
Have a penthouse you can savor
In a palace home downtown,
Who for vices and for pleasures,
For your ladies and your leisures,
Put a patrimony down…
Dear fellow,
Who have never been beguiled
After weeping like a child
Over a woman you adore—
Who have never gone out busted
From the table, and adjusted,
And gone right back in to score…
Who dare say that a randy tango
Has never mussed your composure,
And that you’ve nothing to cry over
When the bellows raise a moan;
Who’ve never had any feeling
You have been half-awake for,
Since like a donkey you’ve paid for
Every conquest you’ve known…
So tell me,
In your lifetime of reclining,
If beneath the moonlight shining,
Or a streetlight, even once,
You have played the poet truly
And told a pretty girl her beauty
Is more lovely than the sun’s.
So tell me,
If you’ve known the suburb twilight,
Where a sweetly colored sky-light
And a harmony prevail,
When the factory girls go passing
With their teasing and their sassing
In a rustle of percale…
Muchacho (1926)
Music: Edgardo Donato
Lyrics: Celedonio Flores
Muchacho
que porque la suerte quiso
vivís en un primer piso
de un palacete central,
que pa' vicios y placeres,
para farras y mujeres
disponés de un capital…
Muchacho
que no sabés el encanto
de haber derramado llanto
sobre un pecho de mujer;
y no sabés qué es secarse
en una timba y armarse
para volverse a meter;
Que decís que un tango rante
no te hace perder la calma
y que no te llora el alma
cuando gime un bandoneón;
que si tenés sentimiento
lo tenés adormecido
pues todo lo has conseguido
pagando como un chabón.
Decime
si en tu vida pelandruna,
bajo la luz de la Luna
o si no bajo un farol,
no te has sentido poeta
y le has dicho a una pebeta
que ella es más linda que el Sol.
Decime
si conocés la armonía,
la dulce policromía
de las tardes de arrabal,
cuando van las fabriqueras
tentadoras y diqueras
bajo el sonoro percal…