Written by José María Contursi, “Garras” (Claws) is the harrowing portrait of a forgotten lover, which makes an unusual shift of scenery as it changes from a cold night in the city to the haunting ambience of a folktale. The central metaphor of the chorus depicts the speaker as a duende—a mischievous spirit that often lures children into the woods in Iberian and Latin American folk tales. The notion of duende as a presence became a metaphor for dark art throughout the Spanish-speaking world, in the wake of Federico Garcia Lorca’s influential lecture “The Theory and Play of Duende,” delivered in Buenos Aires in 1933. The irony of Contursi’s lyric is that the duende or fiend, the would-be seducer, is the one who has gone astray, and is being torn apart by the raptor-like claws of his sorrow. As some dancers have remarked, Troilo’s musical writing in this tune is as gripping as the imagery.
Claws
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Aníbal Troilo with Alberto Marino
Alley in the dark… waiting still for you…
Coldness… Shadows!
Anxious to live life just for your love…
Unable to…
I feel my life is slipping fast away—
And you’re not crying;
I look in devastation for your warmth—
And you have gone!
Agony most cruel… left in solitude,
Forgotten ever after—you moved on!
I’d had enough, and in my rush to be done
Went like a fiend unfurled
Who wandered lost, nor could meet you once
Down the streets of the world…
And I’m lost in the wilds, like a nestless bird,
Like a small abandoned child,
With my sorrows clutching after me like claws
And tearing out my heart!
Alley in the dark… night that never ends…
Shadows… coldness!
Funny that you came here to forgive
And to be kind…
Now my wretched life is at an end,
And I’m a hollow…
Dead to all the world, and to you,
My empty heart!
Agony most cruel… left in solitude,
To whimper ever after—nothing more!
Garras (1944)
Música: Aníbal Troilo
Letra: José María Contursi
Callejón sin luz… esperándote…
Frío… Sombras!
Ansias de vivir para tu amor
y no poder…
Siento que la vida se me vá…
y no me lloras
Busco desolado tu calor…
y aquí no estás!
Agonía cruel… luego soledad
Y después tu olvido ¡nada más!
No pude más… y en mi afán por llegar
era un duende errabundo
que se perdió sin poderte encontrar
por las calles del mundo…
Y me he quedado como un pájaro sin nido…
como un niño abandonado…
con mis penas que se agarran como garras
y desgarran a mi corazón!
Callejón sin luz… noche sin final…
Sombras… frío!
Gracias por venir con tu perdón
y tu bondad…
Ya mi pobre vida terminó…
y estoy vacío
Muerto para el mundo y para vos
mi corazón!
Agonía cruel… luego soledad
Este llanto tuyo y ¡nada más!