Fans of the song “Sin palabras” have long speculated about the personal story behind the lyrics, ascribing to E. S. Discépolo all sorts of fears that his companion Tania was having an affair. Perhaps because the song works so well, or perhaps because the tango in general deals with such raw emotions, we see similar speculations arise with many numbers that were, in fact, written to order for the screen.
The great Libertad Lamarque had already performed several Discépolo tangos in her movies with overwhelming success, and she wanted a set-piece for the film Romance musical (dir. Ernesto Arancibia), whose filming went into 1945. Fresh off the success of “Uno” in 1943, she asked for the same songwriting team again. Pianist Mariano Mores spent a few days on the music—“rather operatic,” he later called it—before shipping it off to Discépolo, who worked on the lyrics for a few weeks until it was ready. The actress loved it, absolutely nailed it for the film—and then everyone waited until the government censors were done delaying matters. The picture finally premiered in 1947, by which time Lamarque was living in exile in Mexico, where she spent the next several decades.
The song itself portrays the situation of the film’s protagonist, a singer embroiled in the crossfire of two lovers’ suspicions and jealousies. The picture was a success in Argentina, and was swiftly remade as Romance on the High Seas (dir. Michael Curtiz) in 1948, starring Doris Day in her screen debut. The American adaptation did not, of course, use the song.
Out of Words
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Libertad Lamarque (film)
You made this be…
By seeking out a song of us together…
Yet how things fell—
How cruel it is, to dish it to you now!
Out of words for you, this music’s bound to grieve you
Wheresoever it should find your cheating ears…
Your most depressing days… absurdest evenings…
When you go laughing, or your hope is full of tears…
Forgive me if the one
Who punished you was God indeed…
If sobs come
To persecute you endlessly…
If these notes, arisen out of love of yours,
Chafe against you like a hair-shirt
raising wounds you left behind you—
Like a torture… to remind you…
The broken puppet of my woes
Shall arise… every time…
You hear this song your own.
You made this be…
With lies about our promise of a future…
Yet how things fell—
How cruel it is, to dish it to you now!
Out of things to say, this music’s bound to name you,
Out of things to say, I’ll be there with your name…
My eyes so nearly blinded in amazement,
Out of amazement I could lose you and survive…
Sin palabras (1945)
Music: Mariano Mores
Lyrics: Enrique Santos Discépolo
Nació de ti…
buscando una canción que nos uniera,
y hoy sé que es cruel,
brutal, quizá, el castigo que te doy.
Sin palabras esta música va a herirte,
dondequiera que la escuche tu traición…
la noche más absurda… el día más triste…
cuando estés riendo, o cuando llore tu ilusión.
Perdóname si es Dios
quien quiso castigarte al fin…
si hay llantos
que pueden perseguir así…
si estas notas que nacieron por tu amor,
al final son un cilicio
que abre heridas de una historia—
¡son suplicios, son memorias!
Fantoche herido, mi dolor
se alzará cada vez
que oigas esta canción.
Nació de ti…
mintiendo entre esperanzas un destino,
y hoy sé que es cruel,
brutal, quizá, el castigo que te doy…
Sin decirlo esta canción dirá tu nombre,
sin decirlo con tu nombre estaré yo.
Los ojos casi ciegos de mi asombro,
junto al asombro de perderte y no morir.