Pascual Contursi had launched the tango on its narrative mission in 1916 with “Mi noche triste,” the song that first brought the typical bohemian characters and a story to the genre. For twenty years the tango pursued this social chronicle, but by the advent of the 1940s the new generation was turning their focus inward to romantic themes. Foremost among these poets of intense longing was Pascual’s own son, José María Contursi, whose tangos center on “Gricel.”
Katunga (as the son was known) rarely used lunfardo or wrote of the neighborhoods. His overriding theme was the lover’s pain, which burns away all other contexts. Among his strongest numbers is the 1944 tango “Cristal,” which indeed echoes earlier lyrics (such as “Volver” and “Nostalgias”) but whose universe seems entirely personal and not derived in any way from the traditions or settings of the stage.
Unrelated to any shows, “Cristal” won a 1944 contest on Radio Belgrano sponsored by Mejoral (an aspirin company that funded many such song competitions). Within days it was recorded by Troilo, Canaro, and Fresedo, with other renditions soon to follow. The tune’s composer, Mariano Mores, was the pianist of Francisco Canaro’s orchestra from 1939-1948, and perhaps exerted some influence on that orchestra’s unusually histrionic arrangement of the song—a flamboyant flair which Mores would become famous for in his later career, somewhat to the dismay of many tangueros.
Glass
(Tr. Jake Spatz)
YouTube: Alberto Marino | Carlos Roldán
Shattered now my heart is wholly broken,
Crushed today my passions lie in pieces…
Restless night by night I lie awoken,
With unease in my soul that never ceases…
Years, so many years have passed and faded,
Gray my hair and gray my life is turning!
Raving… all but dying… devastated,
With my spirit still fixated
On our vanished youth…
More fragile than fine glass
Was my love by your side…
The glass that was your heart,
And your laugh, and your eyes…
Your fancies and my voice
And both our timid ways
Atremble on your balcony so mild…
And all I know for sure
Is everything was lost
The dusk of my departure…
I’ll never now return,
That I know, never more!
Perhaps you’ll wait for me,
Close to God, there beyond!
All that lies behind me now is over,
All that lies ahead is now forgetting.
Tragic is the lesson at the closure
Of all those blackest hours of my fretting!
Years, so many years have passed and faded,
Gray my hair and gray my life is turning!
Lonely, ever lonely and isolated,
With my spirit still fixated
On our vanished youth…
Cristal (1944)
Music: Mariano Mores
Lyrics: José María Contursi
Tengo el corazón hecho pedazos,
rota mi emoción en este día…
Noches y más noches sin descanso
y esta desazón del alma mía…
¡Cuántos, cuántos años han pasado
grises mis cabellos y mi vida!
Loco… casi muerto… destrozado,
con mi espíritu amarrado
a nuestra juventud…
Más frágil que el cristal
fue mi amor junto a ti…
Cristal tu corazón,
tu mirar, tu reír…
Tus sueños y mi voz
y nuestra timidez,
temblando suavemente en tu balcón…
Y ahora sólo sé
que todo se perdió
la tarde de mi ausencia.
Ya nunca volveré,
lo sé bien, ¡nunca más!
Tal vez me esperarás,
junto a Dios, ¡más allá!
Todo para mí se ha terminado,
todo para mí se torna olvido.
¡Trágica enseñanza me dejaron
esas horas negras que he vivido!
¡Cuántos, cuántos años han pasado,
grises mis cabello y mi vida!
Sólo, siempre sólo y olvidado,
con mi espíritu amarrado
a nuestra juventud.