If you know this song well on the dance floor, Carlos Bahr’s lyrics might come as a surprise: for such a tragic sounding strain, they are pretty positive! Of course, it wouldn’t be a tango without some kind of strong mixed emotion. Here that is created by a rising contrast between lyrics and music. The stark melody, written by Bahr’s frequent writing partner Manuel Sucher, creates a mood of tension and difficulty, as though this lover’s words came at great internal cost. Suddenly a whole drama seems to unfold around the situation: is this part of a wartime play? Are we in the presence of two sweethearts divided by social caste? Is this a song about love transcending worldly values?
As often happens in a Carlos Bahr tango, the emotion is so straightforward and sincere, so freed from irony, that it seems like a subject with no background. Yet the substance is so real, stories flood the frame: we could be in the barrio, or along the Western front, or in the crusades. They all have a place for the pure heart, or poor heart, to offer itself in service and devotion, kneeling with a gesture that is equal parts humility and chivalry.
Nothing More Than a Heart Alone
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Carlos Bermúdez (orq. Pedro Laurenz)
Nothing more
Than your affection’s what I’m after,
It is the miracle I’m asking
Out of life, as my rewarding
For such a lashing.
Nothing more
Than your affection’s what I’m after,
I never sought a greater fortune
Than to have the happy portion
Of living for your love.
I’ve nothing in return to offer you beyond
A sentimental heart as humble as a song.
My fantasies could pledge you and swear you a future
With promises and dreams of good fortune to come…
But today I’m holding nothing, nothing more
Than the yearnings that draw me toward you,
And though I’d give you the whole world,
All I now can truly give you is a heart
That’s beating for one love alone.
Nothing more
Than your affection’s what I’m after,
And if my luck is to endear you
I will have no greater purpose
Than to revere you.
Nothing more
Than your affection’s what I’m after,
It’s all my hope and my ambition
To gladly put myself in service
Of living for your love.
Nada más que un corazón (1944)
Music: Manuel Sucher
Lyrics: Carlos Bahr
Nada más
que tu cariño es lo que quiero,
es el milagro que a la vida
le reclamo como premio
por tanta herida.
Nada más
que tu cariño es lo que quiero,
pues nunca ansié mejor fortuna
que lograr esa aventura
de vivir para tu amor.
No puedo darte en cambio más que un corazón
sentimental y humilde como una canción.
Podrá mi fantasía brindarte el halago
de sueños que prometen fortuna mejor,
pero yo no tengo nada, nada más
que anhelos que hacia ti me llevan,
y aunque quiera darte un mundo,
solamente puedo darte un corazón
que late por un solo amor.
Nada más
que tu cariño es lo que quiero,
y si lograrlo está en mi suerte
no tendré mejor empeño
que el de quererte.
Nada más
que tu cariño es lo que quiero,
es mi ambición y mi esperanza,
realizar el grato sueño
de vivir para tu amor.