The tango lyricist credited as Luis Mario, or sometimes as Mario Castro, was in reality María Luisa Carnelli—one of the few women who wrote lyrics for tangos during the Golden Age. Her first hit song was “Cuando llora la milonga” (1927), with music by Juan De Dios Filiberto, and her second success came in 1929, when she provided the words for “Se va la vida,” with music by Edgardo Donato and Roberto Zerrillo, two violinists who led an orchestra together (Donato-Zerrillo) from 1926 through 1933.
Donato would later record this song with his own orchestra in 1936. The song’s biggest exponent, however, was the leading lady singer of the day, Azucena Maizani (pictured above). Known for her brazen performances in male garb, sometimes dressed comically as a gaucho, Maizani became a star in the 1920s, and something of a counterpart to Carlos Gardel during the first boom of the songbook. Alongside fellow singer Rosita Quiroga, she ushered in the age of female vocalists which soon bloomed as the movie industry went into full swing in the sound era. “Se va la vida,” meanwhile, was an enormous hit both at home and in Europe, becoming one of the most requested songs in Spain during the year 1929. In Maizani’s recording, featured here, she sings the verses as shown; most other versions feature them in the opposite order—second verse first—which might be what Carnelli wrote.
Life Is A-Passing
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Azucena Maizani
Life is a-passing…
There’s no returning…
Here’s some advice, now listen:
If there’s some bigshot who wants to pay your way,
Pounce on that proposition.
The days are speeding,
The years are flying…
Happy days are so fleeting…
Pay no mind, then, to virtues or blues!
Go out and live your youth!
I want you
To go, girl,
And show off your true colors,
And put to
The axe-blow
Your memories of squalor.
I mean, Why should you cry,
Shedding tears for love,
Till the day you die
Of your own despairing?
Don’t you nurse the flower
Of unhappy dreams,
When it’s in your power
To let fortune meet you
Where you set your mind.
Life is a-passing…
There’s no returning…
Here’s some advice, now listen:
If there’s some bigshot who wants to pay your way,
Pounce on that proposition.
It’s passing by, girl…
Who can detain it?
Even God can’t restrain it!
Live it up, then, and don’t pay a mind
To leaving woes behind.
Se va la vida (1929)
Music: Edgardo Donato & Roberto Zerrillo
Lyrics: María Luisa Carnelli
Se va la vida…
Se va y no vuelve…
Escuchá este consejo:
si un bacán te promete acomodar
entrá derecho viejo.
Pasan los días,
pasan los años…
Es fugaz la alegría
¡No pensés en dolor ni en virtud!
¡Viví tu juventud!
Yo quiero,
muchacha,
que al fin mostrés la hilacha
y al mismo
recuerdo
le des un golpe de hacha.
Decí, ¿Pa’ que querés
llorar un amor
y morir, tal vez
de desesperanza?
No regués la flor,
de un sueño infeliz,
porque, a lo mejor,
la suerte te alcanza
si te decidís.
Se va la vida…
Se va y no vuelve…
Escuchá este consejo:
si un bacán te promete acomodar
entrá derecho viejo.
Se va, pebeta…
¿quién la detiene?
¡Si ni Dios la sujeta!
Lo mejor es gozarla y largar
las penas a rodar.