This week’s translation is an update to “Volver,” a text I reworked directly from the sheet music to achieve a more singable version in English. (The verses really soar in the middle, and I felt my first version didn’t do them justice.) I also made a few changes to make the translation more faithful to the context of the song in the 1935 film that featured it. The short comment from my original post (Dec. 23, 2020) follows below.
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The 1935 film El día que me quieras is not just famous for its title number: the song “Volver” also stands among the all-time classic tangos of the silver screen. Carlos Gardel’s performance of the song shows off his unmistakable phrasing, and the clear, moving, effortless tone of his voice carries the melody at its very best. The clip from the film linked to below also shows how cinema at the time, especially in Argentina, borrowed a great deal from opera staging, as Gardel delivers what is essentially an aria, standing before a simple background set with no pretense of acting involved.
Return
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Carlos Gardel (orq. Terig Tucci)
I can just make out the blinking
Of the lanterns in the distance
That are marking my trip homeward.
They’re the same that used to glimmer
On my sorrowful existence
With a dim and pallid glow…
Though I’d not planned on returning,
Back to your first love, you do always go!
The olden alley, where echoes once told me:
You live for her now, your love now is hers!—
Beneath the cold and mocking stars in heaven
That in their condescension, see me now return.
Return…
With my brow gotten wrinkled,
And temples gone silver
With winters of time.
To feel…
Life is gone in a twinkle,
That two decades don’t matter,
That I’m mad as a hatter
And chasing a phantom
And calling at random.
To live…
Ever weeping the sadder
At sweet recollections
All over again.
I’m afraid of the encounter
Of the past I now return to
And the life I have been living.
I’m afraid of recollections
That will mob me as I’m sleeping,
Chaining me to long ago.
But when you’re running from something,
Sooner or later, your pace has to slow…
And though neglect, that turns all into nothing,
Has ended all my illusions of old,
I’m holding on to just one little secret,
And it is all the fortune that my heart can hold.
Volver (1934)
Lyrics: Alfredo Le Pera
Music: Carlos Gardel
Yo adivino el parpadeo,
de las luces que a lo lejos
van marcando mi retorno.
Son las mismas que alumbraron
con sus pálidos reflejos
hondas horas de dolor.
Y aunque no quise el regreso
siempre se vuelve al primer amor.
La vieja calle donde el eco dijo:
tuya es su vida, tuyo es su querer,
bajo el burlón mirar de las estrellas
que con indiferencia, hoy me ven volver.
Volver…
con la frente marchita,
las nieves del tiempo
platearon mi sien.
Sentir…
que es un soplo la vida,
que veinte años no es nada,
que febril la mirada,
errante en la sombra
te busca y te nombra.
Vivir…
con el alma aferrada
a un dulce recuerdo
que lloro otra vez.
Tengo miedo del encuentro
con el pasado que vuelve
a enfrentarse con mi vida.
Tengo miedo de las noches
que pobladas de recuerdos
encadenen mi soñar.
Pero el viajero que huye,
tarde o temprano, detiene su andar,
y aunque el olvido que todo destruye,
haya matado mi vieja ilusión,
guardo escondida una esperanza humilde
que es toda la fortuna de mi corazón.