Soledad

SOLEDAD (LONELINESS)
Music by Carlos Gardel
Lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera
Translation by Coby Lubliner

Yo no quiero que nadie a mí me diga
que de tu dulce vida tú ya me has arrancado.
Mi corazón una mentira pide
para esperar tu imposible llamado.
Yo no quiero que nadie se imagine
como es de amarga y honda mi eterna soledad.
Pasan las noches y el minutero muele
la pesadilla de su lento tic tac.

En la doliente sombra de mi cuarto al esperar
sus pasos que quizá no volverán,
a veces me parece que ellos detienen su andar
sin atreverse luego a entrar.
Pero no hay nadie y ella no viene,
es un fantasma que crea mi ilusión
y que al desvanecerse va dejando su visión
cenizas en mi corazón.

En la plateada esfera del reloj
las horas que agonizan se niegan a pasar.
Hay un desfile de extrañas figuras
que me contemplan con burlón mirar.
Es una caravana interminable
que se hunde en el olvido con su mueca espectral.
Se va con ella tu boca que era mía.
Solo me queda la angustia de mi mal. I don’t ever want anyone to tell me
That you’ve removed me from your sweet life once and for all.
My heart is begging for a lie to help me
While I wait for your most unlikely call.
I don’t want anybody to imagine
How bitter and how deep is the loneliness I know.
The nights go by and the minute hand keeps grinding
With its nightmarish ticktock so very slow.

Now in the painful shadow of my room, as I await
Her steps that will perhaps not come again,
Sometimes it seems to me as if they only stop their gait,
Not daring then to come on in.
But there is no one, and she isn’t coming,
It’s just a ghost that gives my false hope a start,
And as it fades away, the vision of her comes apart,
And ashes are left in my heart.

On the silvery dial of the clock
The agonizing hours refuse to move for days.
There’s a parade of strange, outlandish figures
That look upon me with a mocking gaze.
It’s like a caravan that’s never-ending,
That with its ghostly grin sinks in a forgetful haze.
And then your mouth, which was mine, is leaving with it.
Only the anguish of my heartache stays.