Arrabal amargo (en ingles)

Letra de Alfredo Le Pera
Música de Carlos Gardel
Traducido por Matt Curtis Waldroop

Arrabal so bitter…
crowding in upon my life
like the punishing sentence
of a malediction,
your images torture
my waking and dreaming;
your night sequesters itself
right inside my heart…
When she was alongside me,
I saw not your sorrows.

Your barrio and misery…
And she was my shining light.
And today, now vanquished,
I drag my soul along,
nailed against these streets of yours
the same as to a cross.

The arrabal’s little nook so dear,
with the star-spangled canopy
of your patio that I revere…
It all, it all will be lighted up
when she gazes upon you once more.
And my precious old honeysuckles
will bloom out so they can you adore.
Just like some cloud that is passing
by,
my dreams all go away,
away, and don’t return.

Do not tell anyone
that you love me no more.
And if they should question me,
I’ll say you’re coming,
and that upon your return
my soul will pledge to you.
The eyes of those strangers
won’t be one bit surprised;
you’ll see how everything
was waiting so anxiously…
my dear little white house,
old rosebush so special —
and how that once again
it will soothe all your pains,
dressed out in fiesta,
my pretty arrabal.

The arrabal’s little nook so dear,
with the star-spangled canopy
of your patio that I revere…
It all, it all will be lighted up
when she gazes upon you once more.
And my precious old honeysuckles
will bloom out so they can you adore.
Oh, just like some cloud that is
passing by,
my dreams all go away,
away, and don’t return.

«arrabal» — shabby outskirts of Buenos Aires