Skip to main content

Today's Music - Gardel - Silencio (instrumental)



Lyrics by Carlos Gardel, Alfredo Le Pera and Horacio Pettorossi
Music by Carlos Gardel, Alfredo Le Pera and Horacio Pettorossi
English translation on 7/3/03 by Mike Strand


Lyrics
Silencio en la noche, ya todo esta en calma,
el musculo duerme, la ambición descansa.
Meciendo una cuna, una madre canta,
un canto querido que llega hasta el alma
porque en esa cuna esta su esperanza
Eran cinco hermanos, ella era una santa,
eran cinco besos que cada mañana,
rozaban muy tiernos las sedas de plata
de esa viejecita de canas muy blancas.
Eran cinco hijos que al taller marchaban.
Silencio en la noche, ya todo esta en calma,
el musculo duerme, la ambición trabaja.
Un clarin se oye...peligra la patria
y al grito de: Guerra! los hombres se matan...
cubriendo de sangre los campos de Francia.
Hoy todo ha pasado, florecen las plantas,
un himno a la vida los arados cantan.
Y la viejecita de canas muy blancas,
se quedo muy sola... con cinco medallas
que por cinco heroes, la premio la patria.
Silencio en la noche, ya todo esta en calma,
el musculo duerme, la ambición descansa.
Un coro lejano de madres que cantan
mecen en sus cunas nuevas esperanzas...
Silencio en la noche... silencio en las almas.

English
Silence in the night, all is calm,
bodies are asleep, ambitions at rest.
Rocking a cradle, a mother sings
a beloved song that touches the soul,
because in that cradle lies her hope.
There were five brothers, a saint for a mother.
Each morning five kisses
would tenderly graze the silver strands
of this little old mother’s white hair.
Five sons who went to work in the factory.
Silence in the night, for now all is calm,
bodies are asleep, but ambitions are at work.
A bugle sounds … the country is in danger.

To the shout of “War!”, men slaughter each other,
covering the fields of France with blood.
Now all that is past. Plants bloom,
plowed fields sing a hymn to life.
And the little old mother, with very white hair,
remains all alone … with five medals
for five heroes, awarded to her by the country.
Silence in the night, all is calm,
bodies are asleep, ambitions at rest.
A distant choir of mothers, singing as
they rock in their cradles new hopes.
Silence in the night … silence in souls

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Tim Ferriss and the Myth of Tango Mastery

Dear tanguero, I feel I should explain my reaction to your comments about Tim Ferriss. It touched a nerve and I didn't really explain my apparent hostility. It was certainly not meant for you. Several people have brought Tim Ferriss to my attention over this past year. I can usually make it a month before his name pops up again. For readers who are unfamiliar with him, he's the author of "The 4 Hour Work Week". He set a Guinness record for the most consecutive tango turns and has competed with his partner, Alicia Monti, at the Tango World Championship . As a social dancer the idea of a tango competition seems absurd. I don't think I will ever understand how something like tango could be judged - or why anyone would want it to be. But I digress. I think the most crucial detail of Ferriss's history, as I relate it to tango, is his winning Wired magazine's "Greatest Self-Promoter of All Time" . If there is any concept more out of synch with social ...

"Proper" Tango Shoes

Periodically someone, usually a man, will be bring up the topic of "proper tango shoes." If he's referring to the problem (and dangers) of trying to dance in flip-flops, or mules, or platform shoes etc., those are definitely valid, and very helpful points to be made. The likelihood of damaging your feet is very high without the proper support of high quality shoes. My problem comes with the idea that the *only* proper tango shoes have 4" stiletto heels on them and fetish-worthy embellishments. (Okay, I'm pretty keen on the embellishments myself.) "goofy ballroomy shoes are a turnoff... get rid of them..." - Alex Tango Fuego (granted this is from 2007), http://alextangofuego.blogspot.com/2007/10/to-dance-or-not-to-dancebrutally.html And, in the comments on a blog post, Anonymous said... " This is a controversial one. If a follower isn't wearing tango shoes then it's usually a good sign she's not particularly good." From Ms. Hedgeh...

Ganchos . . . again . . .

(Image courtesy of Emilie Boudet: http://www.emilieboudet.com) From the Facebook comments on my "Expressing the music or dancing for tables" post: "But adornments can become problematic when they interfere with something I'm trying to do. (I have enough trouble as it is). Some of these are basically harmless and don't really bother me that much. Like some ladies insist on doing a gancho whenever I lead them to step over my leg. I'm mostly amused by this. Some girls just like their ganchos and will seize any opportunity to do one." Predictably, I have several problems with the above behavior. First of all, they aren't "their ganchos" ! The gancho for the follower is led. It is my (nearly fanatical) opinion that it should never be an adornment or something the follower just decides to do on her own . As someone who is now attempting to learn to lead, the last thing I want to see, or heaven forbid feel, is a stiletto heel near my crotch ....