With its story of traveling to an abandoned house, and its imagery of snow and rose bushes, Horacio Sanguinetti’s lyric for the tango “Nada” evokes the scenery of Argentina’s interior country at a moment of personal desolation. The implied background of the vast countryside adds to the song’s atmosphere of loneliness and nostalgia, and the picture of desertion resonates through a simple yet clear set of pictures, giving yet one more memorable scenario to the song of lost love.
(Photo credit: Ivan Radic)
Nothing
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Alberto Podestá (orq. Carlos Di Sarli)
Out I came to where your house is…
Who knows how I put the strength on!
If they had told me you’re away,
To never come another day…
If they had told me that you’re long gone!
My soul is under such a snowstorm!
Your door encloses such a silence!
And as I reached the entryway,
To see a padlock hanging there
Made my heart stop in despair.
Nothing, nothing’s left in your childhood home…
Only cobwebs weaving the brush overgrown.
The rambling rose no longer lives
And when you left it must have perished from the loss…
Everything’s a cross!
Nothing, nothing’s here now but sadness and calm…
Not a soul to tell me if still you live on…
Where’d you go… for me to tell you
That I’ve come back today repentant
To seek out your love?
Off I go from where your house was…
And I’m heading I don’t know where.
I bid goodbye without a choice,
And still the echo of your voice
Answers me from “nothing” in there.
On your padlock’s crucifixion
I prayed for you in your affliction…
And there went rolling down your door
A tear become the finest flower
That my poor heart ever bore.
Nada (1944)
Music: José Dames
Lyrics: Horacio Sanguinetti
He llegado hasta tu casa…
¡Yo no sé cómo he podido!
Si me han dicho que no estás,
que ya nunca volverás…
¡Si me han dicho que te has ido!
¡Cuánta nieve hay en mi alma!
¡Qué silencio hay en tu puerta!
Al llegar hasta el umbral,
un candado de dolor
me detuvo el corazón.
Nada, nada queda en tu casa natal…
Sólo telarañas que teje el yuyal.
El rosal tampoco existe
y es seguro que se ha muerto al irte tú…
¡Todo es una cruz!
Nada, nada más que tristeza y quietud…
Nadie que me diga si vives aún…
¿Dónde estás… para decirte
que hoy he vuelto arrepentido
a buscar tu amor?
Ya me alejo de tu casa…
y me voy ya ni sé donde.
Sin querer te digo adiós
y hasta el eco de tu voz
de la “nada” me responde.
En la cruz de tu candado
por tu pena yo he rezado…
y ha rodado en tu portón
una lágrima hecha flor
de mi pobre corazón.