José María Contursi hit his full stride in the early 1940s, and a tango like “En esta tarde gris” shows how he had become the Petrarch of the tango songbook, establishing romantic anguish as the theme of the decade. Much like his earlier tango “Quiero verte una vez más,” this song features a double chorus, a form that allows the speaker’s imagination to overwhelm the song. Additionally, much like his later tango “Cristal,” the verses here repeat certain lines like a refrain, driving home the speaker’s conscious fixation on memory. The variety with which Contursi plied these uncommon structural devices shows that, while his thematic range never strayed very far from the heat of romantic agony, in his work he sought out novel lyrical forms with a certain restlessness, a desire to find the unique shape and sculpture of each song.
Similarly, this tango centers on a specific event—the moment of lover’s remorse, when he comes to the full realization of what he has lost. Listening to the rain makes him recognize that the girl’s desire for reunion has become his own. The same romantic irony occurs in the chorus of “Gricel,” as the speaker agonizes that he cannot forget about his beloved… who by now, he imagines, has surely forgotten about him. This psychological complexity gives Contursi’s lyrics a different sort of subject matter than they appear to have at first glance. They are not just songs of lament and cries of longing: they are eruptions of guilt.
This Darkened Afternoon
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Francisco Fiorentino (orq. Aníbal Troilo)
How much I want to cry this darkened afternoon…
With every tap gone by, the raining speaks of you!
Regret comes over me to know—
The fault is mine
I’ll never, love, I’ll never see you now!
I shut my eyes and see… the way you trembled then
To stand in front of me… and plead for love again…
And now I can hear your voice’s tune
This darkened afternoon!
Come!…
Tearing up you told me…
My soul can bear no more
To let loneliness enfold me…
Come…
And have some pity on my pain,
I’m so exhausted from the crying,
The waiting and the dying,
And the rambling on forever
With my heart alone!
Come…
Come because I love you…
And if you stay away
I’ll drown in tears from thinking of you…
No!
No more can my life wholly be
This love that’s hammered into me,
A cursing all my own!
I failed to grasp the things you were despairing of,
And gladly spread my wings, to chase another love…
How sad and lonely was I there—
To see how far I’d gone
And my deceit laid bare!
I shut my eyes and see… the way you trembled then
To stand in front of me… and plead for love again…
And now my heart bleeds your voice’s tune
This darkened afternoon!
En esta tarde gris (1941)
Music: Mariano Mores
Lyrics: José María Contursi
Qué ganas de llorar en esta tarde gris…
En su repiquetear la lluvia habla de ti!
Remordimiento de saber
que por mi culpa,
nunca vida… nunca te veré!
Mis ojos al cerrar te ven igual que ayer
temblando al implorar de nuevo mi querer…
Y hoy es tu voz que vuelve a mí
en esta tarde gris!
Ven!
triste me decías…
que en esta soledad
no puede más el alma mía…
Ven…
y apiádate de mi dolor
que estoy cansada de llorarte
sufrir y esperarte
y hablar siempre a solas
con mi corazón!
Ven…
pues te quiero tanto
que si no vienes hoy
voy a quedar ahogada en llanto…
No!
no puede ser que viva así
con este amor clavado en mí
como una maldición!
No supe comprender tu desesperación
y alegre me alejé en alas de otro amor…
qué solo y triste me encontré
cuando me vi tan lejos
y mi engaño comprobé!
Mis ojos al cerrar te ven igual que ayer
temblando al implorar de nuevo mi querer…
y hoy es tu voz que sangra en mí
en esta tarde gris!