THE LYRICS IN TANGO (VOLVER)

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2024-12-23

The Lyrics in Tango: Volver

Something I always try to instill in my students during our Tango classes is the importance of its lyrics and their exquisite poetry. Many of them, my students, don’t understand Spanish, much less that unique Argentinian dialect with its lunfardo and metaphors so deeply rooted in the Río de la Plata region. The significance of these lyrics is such that many tangos were poetry before they became songs. In other words, the lyrics were created first, and the poet would present them to a composer to add a melody.

One of the great marvels of tango lies in the ability of these composers to convey the emotions expressed in the ink and to give them a sound that embodies them. It’s a kind of wonderful alchemy where words take on a musical form. When we dance, we use all our senses, and the content of these lyrics—every word, phrase, or silence—affects our emotional body, which then resonates in our physical body. That’s why understanding what the singer is saying offers us an unparalleled element of interpretation. A sung tango without its lyrics is an incomplete work. Tango tells stories—the stories of a people. It is the product of a society in a specific time and place. It deeply reflects the Argentinian (and also Uruguayan) soul. Listening to tango is like looking into a mirror, a mirror that reflects identity.

Throughout the history of tango, there have been brilliant lyricists like Enrique Santos Discépolo, Homero Manzi, Pascual Contursi, and Horacio Ferrer—just to name a few. Each one of them has left an indelible mark on a musical culture that transcended borders to become a universal heritage.

Famous Tangos and “Volver”

Another topic I frequently mention in my classes is what I call “famous tangos.” From my perspective, there’s a large number of famous tangos, and most of them are not the ones most familiar to those who frequent milongas. In fact, many of these tangos are completely unknown to a significant percentage of social dancers. However, these tangos are well-known among the local populations in Argentina and Uruguay—particularly those who listen to tango but don’t dance it (a substantial group) and among tango lovers who appreciate it simply for its music.

One of these tangos is "Volver," composed by Carlos Gardel and Alfredo Le Pera in 1934. Every time I hear this tango, I am transported to my most distant childhood, to my grandmother’s house in the San Telmo neighborhood. It’s probably one of the first tangos I learned to hum, gradually capturing fragments of its lyrics. This tango contains one of the most memorable phrases in tango: “Que veinte años no es nada” (that twenty years are nothing)—a phrase that became and remains part of everyday language. I can’t help but recall one of my father’s friends, when I was very young, looking at me and saying, “As the tango says: twenty years are nothing.”

This is how tango explains time, one of the great themes of the genre. The understanding of this image is vastly different for a seven-year-old child compared to a man approaching forty. Yet this saying has a power as profound as a seed planted by the voice of Carlos Gardel, its meaning evolving throughout life. Its significance can be beautifully summed up by a famous phrase from another angel gifted to us by tango, Aníbal Troilo:

"El tango te espera" (Tango waits for you).

The Lyrics of “Volver”

Now, I’d like to share the lyrics of the tango "Volver", along with an English translation. I hope it conveys some of the emotions present in its original version.

English Translation

I can guess the flickering of the lights in the distance
Marking my return.
They are the same lights that shone with their pale reflections
In deep hours of pain.
And though I didn’t want to come back,
You always return to your first love.
The old street where she sheltered me—
Her life is yours, her love is yours.
Beneath the mocking gaze of the stars,
That, with indifference,
Now see me return.
Return
With a wilted brow,
The snows of time have silvered my temples.
To feel
That life is but a breath,
That twenty years are nothing,
That the feverish gaze,
Wandering in the shadows, seeks you and calls your name.
To live
With the soul clinging
To a sweet memory I cry for again.
I’m afraid of the encounter with the past that returns
To confront my life.
I’m afraid of the nights filled with memories
That chain my dreams.
But the traveler who flees
Sooner or later stops their wandering.
And though oblivion, which destroys everything,
Has killed my old illusion,
I keep a humble hope hidden,
The only treasure of my heart.
Return
With a wilted brow,
The snows of time have silvered my temples.
To feel
That life is but a breath,
That twenty years are nothing,
That the feverish gaze,
Wandering in the shadows, seeks you and calls your name.
To live
With the soul clinging
To a sweet memory I cry for again.


Original Spanish Lyrics

Yo adivino el parpadeo de las luces que a lo lejos
Van marcando mi retorno
Son las mismas que alumbraron con sus pálidos reflejos
Hondas horas de dolor
Y aunque no quise el regreso
Siempre se vuelve al primer amor
La vieja calle donde le cobijo
Tuya es su vida, tuyo es su querer
Bajo el burlón mirar de las estrellas
Que con indiferencia
Hoy me ven volver
Volver
Con la frente marchita
Las nieves del tiempo platearon mi sien
Sentir
Que es un soplo la vida
Que veinte años no es nada
Que febril la mirada
Errante en las sombras, te busca y te nombra
Vivir
Con el alma aferrada
A un dulce recuerdo que lloro otra vez
Tengo miedo del encuentro con el pasado que vuelve
A enfrentarse con mi vida
Tengo miedo de las noches que pobladas de recuerdos
Encadenen mi soñar
Pero el viajero que huye
Tarde o temprano detiene su andar
Y aunque el olvido que todo destruye
Haya matado mi vieja ilusión
Guardo escondida una esperanza humilde
Que es toda la fortuna de mi corazón
Volver
Con la frente marchita
Las nieves del tiempo platearon mi sien
Sentir
Que es un soplo la vida
Que veinte años no es nada
Que febril la mirada
Errante en las sombras, te busca y te nombra
Vivir
Con el alma aferrada
A un dulce recuerdo que lloro otra vez