Yo (1945)

Me…*
music and lyrics by Juan José Guichandut

Phantoms circling in an endless round,
Phantoms circling me all around…
Phantoms, constant rebukes,
night after night they haunt my life—
My poor little life!
Happy hours that will never return;
splendor of a distant love
that, in vain, I want to forget.

I dreamt of you,
I sought you down every path 
and when I found you, with your love
I quenched my wayward pilgrim’s thirst.

Afterwards, it was me, only me
who cruelly ruined
both our lives.
And now I cry over your love,
and as for me—
without your affection,
I’m nothing, nothing at all!

Orquesta Carlos Di Sarli, singer Jorge Durán (1945)

Orquesta Miguel Caló, singer Raúl Iriarte (1945)
 

Orquesta Domingo Federico, singer Carlos Vidal (1945)

*In Spanish, as in English, the first person singular pronoun can take several forms depending on its syntactic and grammatical role. The subject (I/yo) and object (me/mí) pronouns roughly correspond to one another—however, in English (as in French), we often use the object form “me” emphatically, in contexts where in Spanish you would use the subject pronoun. If you just went through a breakup and your friend asks who broke up with who, in French or English you might answer, “C’est moi qui l’ai fait (It was me who did it),” but in Spanish you would say, “Fui yo que lo hice.“ In this tango, there are a couple places (starting with the title) where “me” sounds more natural in English, even though in the original Spanish lyrics the word is “yo.”

(Spanish original after the jump)

Yo
letra y música de Juan José Guichandut

Duendes que rondan su ronda sin fin.
Duendes que rondan en torno de mí…
Duendes, constantes reproches,
que noche tras noche acosan mi vida.
¡Pobre vida!
Horas felices que no volverán;
gloria de un amor lejano
que, en vano, quiero olvidar.

Yo te soñé,
yo te busqué por todos los caminos
y cuando te hallé, con tu amor,
calmé mi sed de errante peregrino.

Después, he sido yo, tan sólo yo,
quien destrozó cruelmente
nuestras vidas.
Y hoy lloro tu amor,
porque yo,
sin tu cariño,
nada, ¡nada soy!