The Argentine journalist and author Julio Nudler wrote glowingly of the poetic quality with which Homero Manzi enlarged the tango world. In one summary of the lyricist’s career, he singled out this tango “Fuimos” for succeeding as a popular song despite its quite daring imagery, calling it “a paradigm of the elaborated and aesthetically ambitious tango.” The very lines of the song are daring as well, reaching out longer and farther in their flow of metaphors than is usual for a tango, while also loading each phrase with numerous internal echoes and rhymes. Even on paper, the song is huge in its ambition, hungry for poetic achievement.
Bandoneonist José Dames, the song’s composer, proved himself equal to the task, producing a truly exceptional score that has won over singers and audiences for decades. Dames was not an especially prolific author, but among his relatively few songs we find some absolute knockouts: “Nada” and “Tristeza marina,” both with lyrics by Horacio Sanguinetti; “Tú,” with lyrics by the incandescent José María Contursi; and this overwhelming tango “Fuimos,” matching the great Homero Manzi at his very best.
We Were (1945)
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Alberto Marino (orq. Aníbal Troilo)
I was like a shower raining ashes and resentment
On the hours of the quiet life you tended…
Like a splash of vinegar upsetting,
Unavoidably upsetting, over all the wounds you mended.
You were just a summer swallow caught within a blizzard,
Just a rose beneath a desert cloud that left it withered.
We were just a promise, not for keeping, not forever,
Never meant to glimpse its mild eve together…
We were just a drifter done with begging, done with praying,
Done lamenting, laying down to die.
Get, then!…
Don’t you see the certain death you’re facing,
Don’t you see I’ll only keep on chasing?
Get, then!…
Don’t you kiss me though I’m crying for you,
When I want to cry for you no more!
You see?…
Best to rid my hurting of
Any contact with your love
Untangled from my love, at last…
Get, then!…
Don’t you see it is the saving of you,
Don’t you see it is the way I love you?
Never miss me, never call me, never kiss me,
Never mourn me, never love me more!
We were huddled closer by the worry of a presage
In the dead-end night ahead with its misgiving,
Just the pallid remnants of a wreckage
Tossed about upon the waves of loving and of living.
We were thrust along upon a wind of desolation,
Shadows of a shadow of a former incarnation…
We were just a promise, not for keeping, not forever,
Never meant to glimpse its mild eve together…
We were just a drifter done with begging, done with praying,
Done lamenting, laying down to die.
Fuimos (1945)
Music: José Dames
Lyrics: Homero Manzi
Fui como una lluvia de cenizas y fatigas
en las horas resignadas de tu vida…
Gota de vinagre derramada,
fatalmente derramada, sobre todas tus heridas.
Fuiste por mi culpa golondrina entre la nieve
rosa marchitada por la nube que no llueve.
Fuimos la esperanza que no llega, que no alcanza,
que no puede vislumbrar su tarde mansa.
Fuimos el viajero que no implora, que no reza,
que no llora, que se echó a morir.
¡Vete…!
¿No comprendes que te estás matando?
¿No comprendes que te estoy llamando?
¡Vete…!
No me beses que te estoy llorando
¡Y quisiera no llorarte más!
¿No ves?,
es mejor que mi dolor
quede tirado con tu amor
librado de mi amor final.
¡Vete!,
¿No comprendes que te estoy salvando?
¿No comprendes que te estoy amando?
¡No me sigas, ni me llames, ni me beses
ni me llores, ni me quieras más!
Fuimos abrazados a la angustia de un presagio
por la noche de un camino sin salidas,
pálidos despojos de un naufragio
sacudidos por las olas del amor y de la vida.
Fuimos empujados en un viento desolado…
sombras de una sombra que tornaba del pasado.
Fuimos la esperanza que no llega, que no alcanza,
que no puede vislumbrar su tarde mansa.
Fuimos el viajero que no implora, que no reza,
que no llora, que se echó a morir.