Volver - Return

VOLVER (RETURN)
Music by Carlos Gardel
Lyrics by Alfredo Le Pera
Translation by Coby Lubliner

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 quieta [vieja] calle donde el eco dijo 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 encadenan 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.

I can almost see the flicker Of the lights that in the distance Mark the way of my returning... They’re the very ones that lit up, Their reflections pale and misted, Many hours of deep pain. Though it was not what I wanted, First love makes one always come back again. The quiet [age-old] street where once the echo told me: Her life is yours, her love is yours to earn, Under the stars that mockingly look on me, And now in their indifference see me return. Return... with my forehead all wrinkled, My temples turned silver by time’s falling snow... To feel... that one’s life is a twinkle, Twenty years hardly reckon, And two fevered eyes beckon, In shadows forestall you And seek you and call you. To live... with the soul firmly clinging To one sweet remembrance That makes me weep so. I am frightened of the meeting With the past that is returning To confront my life all over. I am frightened of the nighttimes When my dreams are linked and fleeting And old mem’ries come to stay. And yet the trav’ler who’s fleeing Sooner or later must stop on the way... And though oblivion, which destroys all being, Has killed my old hopes, ripping them apart, Yet I keep hidden a humble hopeful glimmer That is the only fortune there is in my heart.

Translation © 2004 by Jacob Lubliner
http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~coby/songtr/tangos/volver.htm