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Peregrino y soñador,
cantar,
quiero en mi fantasia
Y la loca poesia
que hay en mi corazon!
Lleno de amor y de alegria,
volcare mi cancion;
[…]
Si es que no vivo lo que sueño,
yo sueño todo lo que canto,
por eso mi encanto es el
amor;
Mi pobre alma de bohemio
quiere acariciar
y como una flor perfumar.
A wanderer and a dreamer,
I love
To sing my fantasy
and the crazy poetry
there is within my heart!
Filled with love and gladness,
I’ll pour my love-song out…
[…]
If it's true I don’t live what I dream,
I still dream all that I sing,
for love is the spell I’m under;
my poor bohemian soul
wants to caress
and to shed perfume like a flower.
[Tr. Jake Spatz]
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A TANGO WAY OF BEING ―
ALBERTO PODESTÁ
Alberto Podestá. In 1939, a fifteen-year-old from the Argentine province of San Juan had come to the big city of Buenos Aires caressing a dream: he wanted to be a tango singer. The young teenager’s destiny would be to evolve into a titan of song known as revered tango crooner Alberto Podestá. Since 1939, Podestá has never stopped living that dream.
EDITOR’S NOTE: In the following excerpt from her essay, Author Beatriz Dujovne describes her impressions from a 2006 interview with the famed singer.
I met him in July 2006 as I was interviewing people for a book in progress. During my four weeks in and out of his life, I learned not just about his spectacular career, but also about who he is as a human being.
As to his career, Podestá inaugurated his many decades of recording under the baton of Miguel Caló, with the tangos “Dos Fracasos" and “Yo Soy El Tango,” and the vals “Bajo Un Cielo De Estrellas.” A few years thereafter, he found a signature song in the tango “Alma De Bohemio” ("Bohemian Soul," Juan Andres Caruso, 1929). In Podestá’s own words: “One day I started extending the ‘a’ in the word cantar, so that it sounded ‘cantaaaaar.’ Gradually I stayed a little bit longer with the ‘a’ – ‘cantaaaaaaaaar.’ I became known for it.”
“Alma De Bohemio” offers us a perspective on the cosmology that runs through the veins of tango lyrics. The protagonist of the lyric is an irredeemably idealistic man, someone totally liberated from the material trappings of life. He lives from the heart and he will die from the heart. His way of being is guided by his subjectivity—his emotions, his fantasy, his dreams. What an impassioned wanderer! What a free spirit – in love with love!
Here are two excerpts from the poetry:
Podestá socialized with the group of talented poets of the '40s and '50s and he told me many anecdotes about them. Back in 2006, after we met for cafecito, I wrote:
“This man was a living history book of the golden age of tango, from 1939 up to the present. It was like he stepped out of the fog from that time, and walked into this café to sit with me.
He told me about Discépolo, one of my favorite tango poets. I asked what type of person Discépolo was, since he wrote the most acid tango lyrics of all time: was he a cynical or angry man? 'Discépolo was a rather introverted person,' he answered, 'quite friendly, who had many loyal friends; one of them accompanied him during his last days before he died.' The singer continued: 'When I was a young singer, Discépolo used to tell me, ‘Pibe [kid], each one of your arms is bigger than two of my legs put together.' "
Discépolo, known as “the Schopenhauer of tango,” expressed in two verses of his tango "Uno" what happens when bohemian souls crash against reality:
Si yo tuviera el corazon…
(El mismo que perdi!)
Si yo tuviera el corazon…
(El mismo que perdi!)
[Tr. Jake Spatz]
The rare idealism of “Alma De Bohemio” gradually faded in subsequent poetic literature. From the '20s onward, abandonment and nostalgia saturated poetry and became its dominant themes; these emotions lie at the heart of the Golden Age tangos we dance to today.
Señor Podestá recorded the greatest and most nostalgic of these icons. His rendition of Cátulo Castillo’s tango “Tinta Roja” was unbearably poignant when I watched his 2006 performance in Buenos Aires. Podestá gave us seven songs with the Adrover orchestra; his voice was virile and tender, rich in textural expression, and rounded even when he sang rage. ““Tinta Roja” made me shiver as he, the protagonist, returned to visit his place of birth and saw it changed. With his right hand placed on his aching heart, Podestá sang with sadness and dolor:
[Tr. Jake Spatz]
¿Dónde estará mi arrabal…?
¿Quién se robó mi niñez…?
En qué rincón, luna mía,
Volcás como entonces
tu clara alegría?
Veredas que yo pisé,
malevos que ya no son,
bajo tu cielo de raso,
trasnocha un pedazo
de mi corazón…
Where is my neighborhood now?
Who stole my childhood?
In what corner, my moon,
do you pour your clear joy
as you did back then?
Sidewalks that I trod,
brawlers that are no more,
under your satin sky,
a piece of my heart
stays up all night…
[Tr. Jake Spatz]
“One day I started extending the ‘a’ in the word cantar, so that it sounded ‘cantaaaaar.’ Gradually I stayed a little bit longer with the ‘a’ ― ‘cantaaaaaaaaar.’ I became known for it.”
― Alberto Podestá
“I have missed this man’s protective quality, his sensitivity, his ageless sensuality, his 'kissability,' his tango way of life always making time for another cafecito.”
―Beatriz Dujovne
