Tango Lyrics in Spanish and English

ESTA NOCHE ME EMBORRACHO

I'm getting drunk tonight (1927)

Music by: Enrique Santos Discepolo

Lyrics by: Enrique Santos Discepolo

Last Updated: 6/1/00

This is the story of a man that casually meets an old sweetheart after ten years of their separation.
First stanza
He describes her with mocking words but then he recognizes that he can’t endure the sight of her decline and he flees feeling close to tears.
Second stanza
Now he remembers when she was so beautiful that turned him crazy and drove him to betrayal of friends and principles so much as to sink his mother in poverty and losing all, even his human dignity just to give her luxury and pleasure. He ask himself how this “old wreck” could led him to ruin his life so completely.
Third stanza
Finally he ends up thinking in a philosophical way, that he never thought he would see her the way she is now and fearing that if he entered too deep in those thoughts he could commit suicide. He decides to get so drunk as to keep his mind dumb enough to produce any thought.

Ramon Penalva

Version en castellano

English version

Sola, fane y descangayada
la vi esta madrugada salir de un cabaret.
Flaca, dos cuartas de cogote,
y una percha en el escote, bajo la nuez.
Chueca, vestida de pebeta,
teñida y coqueteando su desnudez;
parecia un gallo desplumao,
mostrando al compadrear el cuero picoteao.
Yo que se cuando no aguanto mas,
al verla asi raje, pa' no llorar.
Y pensar que hace diez años fue mi locura.
Que llegue hasta la traicion por su hermosura.
Que esto que hoy es un cascajo,
fue la dulce metedura donde yo perdi el honor.
Que chiflao por su belleza,
le quite el pan a la vieja,
me hice ruin y pechador.
Que quede sin un amigo,
que vivi de mala fe.
Que me tuvo de rodillas,
sin moral, hecho un mendigo,
cuando se fue.
Nunca crei que la veria en un requiescainpache
tan cruel como el de hoy.
Mire si no es para suicidarse,
que por ese cachivache,
sea lo que soy.
Fiera venganza la del tiempo
que le hace ver deshecho
lo que uno amo'.
Y este encuentro me ha hecho tanto mal
que si lo pienso mas termino envenenao
Y esta noche me mamo bien mamao,
pa' no pensar.
Lonely, ugly and all broken
I saw her this dawn coming out of a nightclub.
Skinny, a full yard long of neck
And a hanger by neckline under the chin.
Bowlegged dressed as a broad,
hair-dyed and flirting her nudity
looked like a featherless bantam
mockingly showing off her pecked hide.
I, that know when I am fed up,
Just run away from there trying not to cry.
I recall ten years ago, she was my craze.
I went far as to betrayal for all her beauty.
This, that now is an old wreck, was
my sweet at heart where I lost my dignity.
That crazy about her beauty,
I stole food from my mother,
I was mean and I was base.
I was left without a friend,
I lived a wrong and wicked life.
And she had me on my knees,
With no honor, just a beggar
When she left me.
Never I thought I’d see her in this way,
so cruel and bad as I saw her today
Tell me, shouldn’t I kill myself
thinking that for this old junk
I was left as what I’m now.
Ugly this revenge of time
that lets you see destroyed
the one you loved.
This meeting made me feel so bad
That if I think it through I’ll get poisoned ,
this night I’ll drink me out, thoroughly drunk
So I wont think.

GLOSSARY:

Chin: In the original it refers to “the Adam’s apple” not to the “chin”, the change was adopted because the metric demanded a short word.
Fane' (Colloquial)= Worn out, frayed.
Descangayada (Coll.)= Spoiled, ruined
Pebeta (Coll.)= Small or young girl
Desplumao (Vulgarism) Desplumado from desplumar (v)= to take out the feathers
Picoteao (Vulg.) Picoteado, from picotear (v) = to nibble, to peck
(5) Raje' (Vulg.) from Rajar (vi) To run away. To flee. - Pa'= (Vulg.) apocope : para
(6) Requiestimpache(Vulg.) Requiescat in pacem = RIP, Rest in peace
(7) Envenenao (Vulg.) Envenenado, from envenenar (v)= to poison.
(8) Mamao (Vulg.) Mamado from mamar (v) = to suck, to suckle (It refers to the action of drink a lot of any alcoholic beverage)