Letra de Alfredo Le Pera
Letra de Carlos Gardel
Música de Battistella
Traducido por Matt Curtis Waldroop
«MELODY OF THE OUTSKIRTS»
The arrabales were the shabby outskirts of Buenos Aires, in which the
tango was born during the 1880’s. By the 1920’s and 1930’s, these
areas had become more affluent and respectable, but the «good old
days» were still recalled nostalgically in song….
Barrio silvered by the light of the
moon,
murmurs of a milonga,
this is all of your fortune.
There’s a squeeze-box grumbling
along a
back alley poor as a songbird.
And in the meantime a nifty skirt,
pretty as a flower,
waits for a chance to flirt
underneath the quiet light of a
street lamp.
Barrio…barrio…
which has the restless soul
of a sparrow so sentimental.
Sorrows…pleadings…
It’s all a part of the tough barrio,
melody of arrabal.
Dear old…barrio…
Pardon that upon evoking you
I can’t hold back the tear that will
start.
Musing back along your cobblestones
is a kiss that so prolongs,
given to you by my heart.
Cradle of fighters and of singers,
of hot disputes and of glimpses
of all my old love affairs…
Upon your thick walls, with my steel
knife
I carved names of sweethearts of my
life:
Rosa, La Milonguita…
Margot was oh so blonde…
Upon my first date with her
that swell gal Rita
gave to me her love.
Barrio…barrio…
which has the restless soul
of a sparrow so sentimental.
Sorrows…pleadings…
It’s all a part of the tough barrio,
melody of arrabal.
Dear old…barrio…
Pardon that upon evoking you
I can’t hold back the tear that will
start.
Musing back along your cobblestones
is a kiss that so prolongs,
given to you by my heart.