Francisco Gorrindo’s pessimistic but memorable lyrics for “Las cuarenta” elevated the song into a classic of the genre almost immediately. Singer Azucena Maizani premiered the song in 1937 at the Teatro Nacional, and numerous recordings quickly followed. Critics have long observed that the words show the influence of E. S. Discépolo (although not his sarcastic humor); and their accessible, popular idiom turned the social unease of the 1930s into yet another hit song that shaped the tango repertoire. For his part, Discépolo quite admired the song for its lyrics, enough to include it in the 1940 film Confesión for which he provided the music.
The title of this piece requires a bit of commentary. The phrase cantar las cuarenta generally means to give someone a piece of one’s mind, with the cuarenta part connoting hard truths. Ultimately the term derives from the card game Tute, where a player might literally cantar las cuarenta (call forty) to declare the game’s unbeatable hand, taking a trick worth forty points. (As a step in between these meanings, the phrase can also mean “a thrashing,” as when one faces a sound defeat.) The primary, most familiar sense of the words in the song’s title is hard truth, but Gorrindo also plays with the original and more obscure meaning of the words in his card-game metaphors.
The links below feature the well known version by Canaro with the voice of Roberto Maida, as well as the clip from Confesión, where Hugo Del Carril sings the song in a cabaret accompanied by the orchestra of Ricardo Malerba. (The drawing of Gorrindo above is by artist Horacio Cacciabue.)
The Facts
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Hugo Del Carril (in Confesión, 1940)
Roberto Maida (orq. Francisco Canaro)
With the stub-end of a lifetime stuck between his lips a-dangle,
And his visage cold and clouded, and his gait a little slow,
He came round the old hood’s corner, and awash in recollections,
Like one spilling out a poison, you could hear him utter low:
You old street within my barrio, where I went my early paces,
Back to you I come, a deck in tatters, shuffling to no use,
With my chest an open ulcer, with my dreams a million pieces,
Ever since the day they shattered in the embrace of truth.
I got wise to all the wicked,
I got wise to all the decent,
Know of kisses that are paid for,
Know of kisses thrown away…
Of the friend who is forever
At your side when it’s convenient,
And I know a person’s measure
Is the money he can pay.
I got wise to how our living
Means you cry with others’ crying,
And that when the mob is laughing
You had best be laughing too;
Never think, nor be mistaken,
What’s the use! You live no different,
And in the end you’re only risking
Being baptized “fool.”
Every time I tried for decency, they met my face with laughter,
When I called out an injustice, they just shut me up by force;
Hard experience was my lover, disenchantment my companion:
Every card has got its counter, and each one was dealt in course!
I don’t even trust myself now, all’s a con game, all’s a swindle,
And whoever climbs the highest, they just wind up all the same;
So you shouldn’t be astonished, if some night you see me drunken,
Walking arm in arm with someone it were better not to name.
Las cuarenta (1937)
Music: Roberto Grela
Lyrics: Francisco Gorrindo
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Con el pucho de la vida, apretao entre los labios,
la mirada turbia y fría, un poco lerdo el andar,
dobló la esquina del barrio, y curda ya de recuerdos
como volcando un veneno, esto se le oyó acusar:
Vieja calle de mi barrio, donde he dao el primer paso,
vuelvo a vos gastado el mazo, en inútil barajar,
con una llaga en el pecho, con mi sueño hecho pedazos,
que se rompió en un abrazo que me diera la verdad.
Aprendí todo lo malo
aprendí todo lo bueno,
sé del beso que se compra
sé del beso que se dá.
Del amigo que es amigo
siempre y cuando le convenga,
y sé que con mucha plata…
uno vale mucho más.
Aprendí que en esta vida
hay que llorar, si otros lloran,
y si la murga se ríe,
uno se debe reír;
no pensar ni equivocado
¡para qué! Si igual se vive,
Y además corres el riesgo
que te bauticen “gil.”
La vez que quise ser bueno en la cara se me rieron,
cuando grité una injusticia, la fuerza me hizo callar,
la experiencia fué mi amante, el desengaño mi amigo:
toda carta tiene contra y toda contra se da!
Hoy no creo, ní en mi mismo, todo es grupo, todo es falso,
y aquel, el que está más alto, es igual a los demás,
por eso no has de extrañarte si alguna noche borracho
me vieras pasar del brazo, con quien no debo pasar.