[Tango-L] "Yira yira" report

[Huck Kennedy]

Jake Spatz writes:
> I'm happy to announce that the experiment I proposed last
> week has turned up very successful results.

     Now that the experiment is officially over, is it
permissible for us to peek our heads out and open this
thread to discussion?  Whee!!   :)

> The first half of the chorus as a whole goes like this:
> 
>     Veras que todo es mentira,
>     veras que nada es amor,
>     que al _mundo_ nada le importa--
>     yira... yira...
> 
>     (You'll see it's all just a swindle,
>     you'll see there ain't any love,
>     'cause in the _world_ it means nothin'--
>     yira... yira...)

     First, before getting to the actual topic of
discussion, I hope you won't be angry with me for minor
quibbling over the translation here.  Why use "swindle"
when "lie" is what it says, and is a bit more inclusive
and general than "swindle?"  And in the third line,
I know it sounds like belaboring the obvious, but "in"
the world?  It says, "to" the world, why change it
without a really pressing reason?  Also, "it" could be
taken to imply a specificity that love means nothing
(either that, or "it" is almost meaninglessly vague
altogether), when what the verse actually is saying is
that the world doesn't give a hoot about you or anything
in general.

     Why not:

     You'll see that everything's a lie
     you'll see that nothing is love
     that to the world, nothing matters
     yira...  yira...

or if you want to get a bit jiggy with it, and match
syllables a bit better with the music, at the expense
of literal translation:

     You'll see that everything is bullllllshit
     you'll see that nothing's really love
     and that to the world, nothing matters
     yira... yira....

or maybe best a compromise:

     You'll see that everything's a lie
     you'll see that nothing's really love
     that to the world, nothing matters
     yira... yira....

Okay, that out of the way, now let's get on to the object
of all this discussion, to wit, the fourth line.  You mention
that too many people assume that the author is directing
the song at a prostitute, and you point out that there is
really nothing in the song to suggest that, other than the
line, "yira...  yira..." itself.  I think you make a good
point.  Since we're thinking out of the box, let's go whole
hog then and take some risks (there goes that "Whee!" again).
Here are a couple of different ideas occuring to me that
I haven't heard anyone talk about, at least exactly in the
same way:

> This essentially confirms my hunch that the words refer to
> the planet, and could be translated "round you go."

     I'm also into the planet idea, but not as an imperative
("round you go!," talking to either the planet or the
listener) but rather as just third person singular describing
what the planet is doing.  I think most people agree that
"yira," with or without the streetwalker connotation,
originally comes from the Spanish and/or Italian girar,
"to turn".  In science class in Argentina, they will tell
you that "la Tierra gira en su eje" (the Earth rotates on
its axis), no?  With that idea in mind, why can't
"Yira...yira" just mean that "it (el mundo, the world,
literally, in line three) just keeps on spinnin' round,"
oblivious to your troubles.  You can almost see the singer,
with a look of indifference and perhaps a shrug and a slight
nod back and forth (you did say this song came from
a musical revue, right?), twirling the tip of his right index
finger in a small circular motion as he admonishes the
audience, "al mundo, nada le importa, yira...yira..." to
indicate the Earth just keeps spinning on, not giving a damn.
Now *that's* theater!  :)

     For another idea, according to Alberto, "yira" can also
mean to walk around aimlessly, or to cruise purposefully
along.  So then, maybe "yira...yira..." is the singer issuing
an imperative command to the downhearted listener to keep his
head up and "just keep on truckin'," for lack of a better way
of putting it, as they used to say in the US counter-culture
back in the late 60's and early 70's (it really was a lovely
expression).  Remember the R. Crumb comics?

           http://tinyurl.com/3exck

So you'll see that everything's a lie, nothing is love, the
world doesn't give a hoot about your troubles...just buck up
and keep on truckin' anyway pal, in the defiantly weathered
and proud way that we Argentines are wont to do--that's all
you can do, unless you'd rather consider the alternative
(death), or perhaps even the less severe alternative of
letting your downtrodden state show by walking in any manner
less than (God forbid) the self-assured, proud the way an
Argentine should.

     Another more bitter variation on this approach might be
that everyone is in effect a whore in this world, pimping
yourself out for every little morsel of anything you get,
everyone lies and there is no love, when you finally die the
only meaning you'll have will be that everyone else will just
be squabbling over who gets to take the few meager clothes
you're wearing, so strut on, fellow whore, doesn't life just
*totally* suck, and could I possibly be any more bitter?
>From what I gather, this is rather what your correspondent
Beatriz was alluding to, everyone just keep right on being
uncaring a-holes, you dirty rats!

     Or heck, maybe the author *is* just small-talking
a prostitute.  He rented her out not for sex, but just for
someone to unburden his troubles to, like in the movies.  :)
Or maybe she's the one who's bitter, and he's just comforting
her, drying her tears with his panuelo, like Sollozos?

     Anyway, Jake, I hope here's some interesting cocktail-
party talk for you, topic "Yira," minus the cocktails.

Huck