Nostalgias

Desperate to quench the desire of a failed romance, the narrator of this tango seeks comfort in companionship and drink. After being recited by Renée and John in Milonga Falucho at Scopa on Seventh, it was performed live by Sofía Tosello (voice), Pablo Estigarribia (piano), and Javier Sánchez (bandoneón).

Nostalgias (1936) Música de Juan Carlos Cobián Letra de Enrique Cadícamo	Heartsickness [Nostalgias] (1936) Music by Juan Carlos Cobián Lyrics by Enrique Cadícamo, trans. J. Osburn
Quiero emborrachar mi corazón Para apagar un loco amor Que más que amor es un sufrir... Y aquí vengo para eso, A borrar antiguos besos En los besos de otras bocas... Si su amor fue "flor de un día" ¿Porqué causa es siempre mía Esa cruel preocupación? Quiero por los dos mi copa alzar Para olvidar mi obstinación Y más la vuelvo a recordar.	Let me inebriate my beating heart, Snuffing the fire of a crazy love That is more of suff’ring than of love… And I have come here only for this, To wipe away those old kisses On the sweet red lips of other mouths… If her love was but the bloom of a day, How is it I am the one to pay This cruel cost of worry and dread? I’ll raise a cup to two of a kind, Letting go all the stubborn things I’ve said, And all the more she’ll come back to mind.
Nostalgias De escuchar su risa loca Y sentir junto a mi boca Como un fuego su respiración. Angustia De sentirme abandonado Y pensar que otro a su lado Pronto... pronto le hablará de amor... ¡Hermano! Yo no quiero rebajarme, Ni pedirle, ni llorarle, Ni decirle que no puedo más vivir... Desde mi triste soledad veré caer Las rosas muertas de mi juventud.	I’m sick at heart To hear the inanity of her laugh To feel against me mouth-to-mouth Something hot like a smouldering fire. And the anguish Of feeling I have been thrown aside And thinking of another at her side... Soon he’ll… he’ll turn to her soon and speak of love… Ah brother! I don’t want to cut myself down, Nor to beg nor in tears to drown, Nor to say I can no longer live at all… From the drear of loneliness I will watch fall The dried up roses of my thorny youth.
Gime, bandoneón, tu tango gris, Quizá a ti te hiera igual Algún amor sentimental... Llora mi alma de fantoche Sola y triste en esta noche, Noche negra y sin estrellas... Si las copas traen consuelo Aquí estoy con mi desvelo Para ahogarlos de una vez... Quiero emborrachar mi corazón Para después poder brindar "Por los fracasos del amor"...	Cry me, bandoneón, your tango grey, Maybe one that will hurt you as much, Some sentimental love or such… Pluck the frayed strings of my puppet soul, Longful and abandoned without console, Sleepless on this night unlit by stars… If another cup brings solace, I’ll be here in a solitary wake Downing another after another… Let me inebriate my beaten heart So after we can raise a cup To all the joys of breaking up…

Listen to Sofía Tosello sing Nostalgias here.

Notes

"Nostalgia," with or without an “s,” isn’t an apt translation of the seemingly identical Spanish as it is used in this legendary tango. It doesn’t entail the recrimination, regret, or sexual longing that the original does. “Heartsickness” was the equivalent I hit upon. I felt differently about “cup” for copa, which would normally be “glass” in English. But “cup” implies what is in the vessel, as well as the container itself; and there is a tradition of “raising a cup” for nostalgia's sake, most famously in “Auld lang syne.” The archaic ring, for a tango written in 1936, seems about right.

--John Osburn