Taking its place in the tradition between “Milonguita” and “Griseta,” two formative tangos of the 1920s, Cadícamo’s “Madame Ivonne” adds another name to the memorable list of tragic young women portrayed in the tango songbook. This one somewhat mercifully doesn’t end in consumption, but in the portrait of a woman left rootless in the New World, nostalgic and wistful as she reflects on the lively world she left behind—Paris in the Arts District, where as a girl she was the toast of the often scandalous annual ball at the Quat’z’Arts.
There is another song behind this one, however, which further deepens the portrait. Cadîcamo penned these lyrics for a tune by his friend Eduardo Pereyra, in a kind of homage to the composer’s landlady, who went easy on the rent while he was ill. Two years before, Cadîcamo had written another tango which achieved some fame, “Anclao en Parîs”—featuring an Argentine man “anchored” or moored in Paris, far from home. “Madame Ivonne” is the flip-side of that tango, recalling the earlier song’s ten years of absence from home, its snows of Paris, its wistful and rootless loner in an alien world. Here the author knocks the man of the first song, imagining what would lie in store for a young woman drawn into the wake of his fate.
Madame Yvonne
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Julio Sosa (with intro)
Ma’amoiselle Yvonne, all but still a child,
In the charming quarter of olden Montmartre,
Flaunting her grisette flirtation as she smiled,
Lit up the annual ball at Quat’z’Arts…*
She was the darling of the Latin Quarter
Who turned the heads of the poets walking by…
But at the sight of an Argentine boarder,
It was the French girl’s turn to heave a sigh…
Madame Yvonne,
The Southern Cross was like an omen…
Madame Yvonne,
It was the omen of your fortune…
Skylark of gray,
Your despond is in me growing,
Your sorrow’s like a snowing…
Madame Yvonne…
Ten years ago she left France upon a liner,
Ma’amoieslle Yvonne is just Madame today…
She gazes far off at all she left behind her
With such sad eyes as she sips at her champagne.
She’s now no darling of the Latin Quarter,
She’s now no more the skimpy fleur-de-lis,
She now is done with the Argentine importer
Who took her from Paris with his tango and green tea.
______
Julio Sosa sings:
Lit up the parties along that boulevard
Madame Ivonne (1933)
Music: Eduardo Pereyra
Lyrics: Enrique Cadícamo
Mamuasel Ivonne era una pebeta
que en el barrio posta de viejo Montmartre,
con su pinta brava de alegre griseta
animó la fiesta de Les Quatre Arts.*
Era la papusa del barrio latino
que supo a los puntos del verso inspirar…
Pero fue que un día llego un argentino
y a la francesita la hizo suspirar.
Madame Ivonne,
la Cruz del Sur fue como el sino,
Madame Ivonne,
fue como el sino de tu suerte…
Alondra gris,
tu dolor me conmueve,
tu pena es de nieve…
Madame Ivonne…
Han pasado diez años que zarpó de Francia,
Mamuasel Ivonne hoy solo es Madame…
La que va a ver que todo quedó en la distancia
con ojos muy tristes bebe su champán.
Ya no es la papusa del Barrio Latino,
ya no es la mistonga florcita de lis,
ya nada le queda… Ni aquel argentino
que entre tango y mate la alzó de París.
______
Julio Sosa canta:
Alegró las fiestas de aquel bulevar