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Margo (1945)

lyrics by Homero Expósito

music by Armando Pointier

Margo returns to the city,
a bitter tango as her cargo.
Weariness put an embargo
on any rest she tried to get.
Some nights, yesterday

chirped like a cricket until dawn,
but never as much as now,
returning again and again.

What is she trying to do? Where will she go

with a bitter tango as her cargo?
So much weeping from Margo
makes us want to weep too!

Yesterday, she thought that perhaps today…
but today it’s not possible…
Life wins out over hope…
Paris
was dark and she sang her happy tango
not knowing, poor girl,
that old Paris
feeds on the brief and brutal
bloom of magnolias
in the snow…
And afterwards,
Buenos Aires again
and again Margot
has no song and no faith…

Today they talked to me about wandering
and I said to the heavens:
Margo was always more pure
than the moon on the sea.


She had to weep
a tearless kind of weeping,
but never as much as now,


tearless but bleeding.
Voices of friends who are gone
are that bitter tango’s cargo…
So much weeping from Margo
makes us want to weep too!

Orquesta Miguel Caló, singer Raúl Iriarte (1945)

Orquesta Aníbal Troilo, singer Alberto Marino (1945)

Orquesta Francini-Pointier, singer Alberto Podestá (1946)

(Spanish original after the jump)

Margo

Margo ha vuelto a la ciudad
con el tango más amargo,
su cansancio fue tan largo
que el cansancio pudo más.
Varias noches el ayer
se hizo grillo hasta la aurora,
pero nunca como ahora
tanto y tanto hasta volver.
¿Qué pretende? ¿A dónde va
con el tango más amargo?
¡Si ha llorado tanto Margo
que dan ganas de llorar!

Ayer pensó que hoy…
y hoy no es posible…
La vida puede más que la esperanza…
París
era oscura y cantaba su tango feliz,
sin saber, pobrecita
que el viejo París
se alimenta con el breve
fin brutal de la magnolia
entre la nieve…
Después
otra vez Buenos Aires
y Margo otra vez
sin canción y sin fe…

Hoy me hablaron de rodar
y yo dije a las alturas:
Margo siempre fue más pura
que la luna sobre el mar.
Ella tuvo que llorar
sin un llanto lo que llora,
pero nunca como ahora
sin un llanto hasta sangrar.
Los amigos que no están
son el son del tango amargo…
¡Si ha llorado tanto Margo
que dan ganas de llorar!



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About Derrick Del Pilar

Born and raised in Chicago, I came to the tango while studying at the Universidad de Belgrano in Buenos Aires in 2006. In 2008 I earned my B.A. with majors in Creative Writing and Spanish & Portuguese from the University of Arizona, and in 2009 I earned an M.A. in Latin American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. My specialty is the history & literature of early 20th century Argentina.

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