Did you know the lyrics of some tangos are as emotionally charged as the music itself?
Often speaking of helpless love, lost youth and times past, tango lyrics are heavy with nostalgia, melancholy and poetry.
Following a Beginners class last week, an Argentine student asked me to translate a tango. She happened to share a name with the title of the song: Marion – one of my all time favourite tango!
As I focused on giving the best “on-the-spot” translation I could, I was struck by the loveliness of the lyrics. And when I looked up I wasn’t very surprised to see that her eyes had welled up with tears. “Let’s stop now” I suggested, “before we all start crying!”
So I felt inspired to share the lyrics with you. To give you just a little taste of the mood of the tangos you are listening to. Much of the beauty of the poetry is inevitably lost in translation but the sentiment holds true:
Evoking the memory
My heart starts to dream again
And the dream was you, Marion
Love of my youth
That is not forgotten
The shadows of yesterday
With the sadness of a song
Will always say to me: Marion
Marion
I know that at your side I was happy
When I gave you my heart
In old Paris
I remember
The grief of goodbye
And the sky
Marion
Distant love that I left
I want you to know, my heart
That I never forgot you.
