(Translation revised Nov. 2022, in preparation for Librotango, vol. 2.)
Homero Manzi brought to tango lyrics a certain genius for scene painting and portraiture, giving a realness of place and a sense of tender nostalgia to his songs. Among his greatest creations are “Malena” and “Sur,” both of them portraits of the tango itself, as well as this number, “Barrio de tango,” which evokes the old neighborhood of Pompeya where Manzi spent his early teenage years. The scenery he pictures here is notable above all for its lack of glamour. He describes train tracks, dogs barking, a shadowy doorway, an old grocery store… it is one neighborhood, at one point in time, where the immigrants of Europe settled, and where the first strains of the tango began to drift over the streets.
As for the local specifics, Nueva Pompeya lies on the southside of Buenos Aires, along the former floodplains of the Riachuelo. In the 1910s, a large embankment was built to protect the area from flooding, atop which the local train line ran. Before the district was given its current name (in 1900, after the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompei), the area was known as the Barrio de las ranas (Frog district)—an appellation for which nearby Parque Patricios is still remembered.
Tango Barrio
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Roberto Goyeneche (orq. Troilo)
What a gem of a barrio, out in Pompeya,
Spread out along the causeway’s sleepy terrain.
With a lantern swinging high above the crossing,
And that mystique of farewells about the train.
With a barking of dogs below the moon there—
At the door, the lover hiding out alone.
And the croaking of the toads in the lagoon there,
And in the distance, a crooning bandoneon.
Old tango barrio, moonlight and mystery,
Your streets afar off, how do they fare?
My old-time buddies I scarcely remember,
How did they turn out, are they still there?
Old tango barrio, what ever became of
Juana the blonde girl I used to love so…
She’ll know I’ve suffered, obsessing about her,
Since our last night there, so long ago!
Old tango barrio, moonlight and mystery,
Within my memory I see you again!
A chorus of whistles, down on the corner,
The warehouse with a card game it can’t contain.
The big to-do about the pallid lady neighbor
Who now never comes out to see the train.
Your nights of old I so remember, tango barrio,
As the flatbeds rolled in the loading zone,
And the moonlight splashed around in muddy puddles,
And in the distance, a crooning bandoneon.
Barrio de tango (1942)
Music: Aníbal Troilo
Lyrics: Homero Manzi
Un pedazo de barrio, allá en Pompeya,
durmiéndose al costado del terraplén.
Un farol balanceando en la barrera
y el misterio de adiós que siembra el tren.
Un ladrido de perros a la luna.
El amor escondido en un portón.
Y los sapos redoblando en la laguna
y a lo lejos la voz del bandoneón.
Barrio de tango, luna y misterio,
calles lejanas, ¿cómo estarán?
Viejos amigos que hoy ni recuerdo,
¿qué se habrán hecho, dónde estarán?
Barrio de tango, qué fue de aquella,
Juana, la rubia, que tanto amé.
¿Sabrá que sufro, pensando en ella,
desde la tarde que la dejé?
Barrio de tango, luna y misterio,
¡desde el recuerdo te vuelvo a ver!
Un coro de silbidos allá en la esquina.
El codillo llenando el almacén.
Y el dramón de la pálida vecina
que ya nunca salió a mirar el tren.
Así evoco tus noches, barrio ’e tango,
con las chatas entrando al corralón
y la luna chapaleando sobre el fango
y a lo lejos la voz del bandoneón.