By now, most have read the emails published by The State, which details South Carolina Governor’s Mark Sanford’s ongoing correspondence with a woman only identified by the newspaper as ``Maria’’ from Buenos Aires, Argentina, who by the governor’s own admission he was having an adulterous affair with.
Many of the emails are steeped in passion, mushy prose, and at times, wildly expressive; such as in one email, when writes of her ``tan lines and the curve of her hips.’’
One can only imagine, then, if some future emails were put to lyrics in Tango songs, a musical genre which has become associated with Buenos Aires dating back to the end of the 19th century, when it was first introduced in the city's poorest districts.
The Tango in earliest stages was thought to inflame scandalous and immoral behavior to such an extent that it was condemned by the church and prohibited by local authorities. After lyrics were introduced to the Tango in 1917 by Carlos Gardel; songs by the 1930’s became more connected with the fabric of social life, dealing with such themes as anxieties and frustrations; by the 1940’s lyrics became more personal and emotional
Assuming Gov Sanford’s relationship with the Argentine woman was more than a one-night stand, but was rather a genuine love affair despite its adulterous implications and naturally shunned by society, and a huge disappointment to his devoted supporters; what follows are some famous Tango lyrics that the governor might be writing in the coming weeks and months in emails to his forbidden lover in lamenting their flames of passion.
Forbidden
Music by: Manuel Sucher
Lyrics by: Carlos BahrNo es culpa si la vida en su designio
cruz nuestros caminos al andar.
Ni es culpa si este amor que est prohibido
ha entrado en nuestras almas sin llamar.
Debemos doblegarnos y sufrir los dos
por esta amarga y ms que cruel separacin.
Mas nunca el corazn podr, aunque queriendo,
renunciar al derecho de este amor.It is not mistake if life in its plan
crossed our paths. Nor it is mistake
if this love, that is prohibited
has entered our souls without knocking.
We must both fold and suffer
by this bitter and cruel separation...
But never will the heart be able to, although wanting,
resign to the right of this love.***
Abandonment (1937)
Music by: Pedro Maffia
Lyrics by Homero ManziYa no sueo que retornars
al fracaso de mi vida
ni tampoco que en tu palpitar
tendra un afn para andar.
Slo quiero que si ests tambin
en la cruz del abandono,
sepas olvidarme en tu perdn...
Total, mir lo que soy.Now I don't dream that you will return
to the failure of my life,
nor that in your heart beat,
I would have the urge to go.
I only wish that if you are also
on the cross of abandonment,
You'll know how to forget me in your mercy...
So, look at what I am.**
Abandoned (1927)
Music by: Pedro Maffia and Pedro LaurenzCuantas noches voy vagando, angustiado, silencioso,
recordando mi pasado con mi amiga la ilusion;
voy en curda, no lo niego, que sera muy vergonzoso,
pero llevo ms en curda a mi pobre corazn.How many nights I'm wandering, anguished, silent,
remembering my past with my friend the illusion;
that I'm drunk, I don't deny it, that will be very shameful,
but I carry more inebriated my poor heart.***
Ballad for a crazy (1969)
Music by: Astor Piazzolla
Lyrics by: Horacio FerrerYo se que estoy piantao, piantao, piantao...
Yo miro a Buenos Aires del nido de un gorrion;
y a vos te vi tan triste... Veni! Vola! Senti!...
el loco berretin que tengo para vos:I know I'm crazy, I'm crazy, I'm crazy...
I see Buenos Aires from a sparrow's nest;
and I saw you so sad... Come! Fly! Feel!...
the crazy desire I have for you***
Let's have a talk (1941)
Music by: Luis Rubinstein
Lyrics by: Luis RubinsteinCharlando soy feliz...
La vida es breve
Soemos en la gris
tarde que llueve...
Hablemos de un amor...
Seremos ella y el
y con su voz
mi angustia cruel
sera mas leve...
Charlemos, nada mas.
Soy el cautivo
de un sueo tan fugaz
que ni lo vivo.
Charlemos, nada mas,
que aqui en mi corazon,
oyendola siento latir
otra emocion...Chatting makes me happy...
Life is brief...
Let's dream in the gray
rainy afternoon...
Let's talk about a love affair...
We'll be her and him
and with your voice
my cruel anguish
will be trivial.
Let's talk, nothing else.
I am captive
of a dream so brief
that I can't even live it.
Let's talk, nothing else,
for here, in my heart,
hearing you I feel beating
another emotion...***
Crystal (1944)
Lyrics by: Jose Maria Contursi
Music by: Mariano MoresTodo para mi se ha terminado.
Todo para mi se torna olvido.
Trgica enseanza me dejaron
esas horas negras que he vivido.
Cuntos... cuntos aos han pasado,
grises mis cabellos y mi vida,
solo, siempre solo y olvidado,
¡con mi espritu amarrado a nuestra juventud!Everything has finished for me,
everything for me transforms into oblivion.
Tragic experiences have left for me
those black hours that I have lived!
How many, how many years have passed,
grey are my hair and my life!
Lonely, always lonely and forgotten.
With my spirit clinging to our youth….****
Downhill (1934)
Lyrics by: Alfredo Lepera
Music by: Carlos GardelSi cruce por los caminos
como un paria que el destino
se empeo en deshacer;
si fui flojo, si fui ciego,
solo quiero que comprendan
el valor que representa
el coraje de querer.If I roamed the roads
as a pariah that fate
persisted in undoing;
if I was weak, if I was blind,
I just want them to understand
the value that represents
the courage to love.***
The Buenos Aires song (1932)
Music by: Azucena Maizani y Oreste Cúfaro
Lyrics by: Manuel RomeroCancin maleva, cancin de Buenos Aires,
hay algo en tus entraas que vive y que perdura.
Cancin maleva, lamento de amargura,
sonrisa de esperanza, sollozo de pasin.
Ese es el tango cancin de Buenos Aires,
nacido en el suburbio que hoy reina en todo el mundo.
Este es el tango que llevo muy profundo
clavado en lo ms hondo del criollo corazn.Mischievous song, song of Buenos Aires,
there's something in your essence that lives and endures.
Mischievous song, moan of bitterness,
smile of hope, sob of passion.
That is the tango song of Buenos Aires,
born in the slum, today it rules all
the world.
This is the tango that I carry so deep,
buried in the depth of the Creole heart.
-Bill Lucey
WPLucey@gmail.com
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Posted by: Hermes Handbags | 11/09/2009 at 04:31 AM