Milonga del solitario

(Milonga)

I like it from time to time
get lost in a snare,
because I see
that I don't even command myself. (1)
The strings are ordering
the directions of thought, (2)
and in the slow trot
from a country milonga
it goes out into the field, (3)
the best of feeling.

No one should think (4)
I come in revenge,
It's not my fault if on the court
I have something to gallop with.
Whoever wants to beat me,
I have a good partner, (5)
I will take off my hat,
because that's how they taught me, (6)
and I consider myself well paid
entering behind the first.

I have always sung softly (7)
because I can't find myself screaming
-scream when riding a horse
if in the cane I have bandea'o- (8)
but trying a verse (9)
wherever troubles are sung, (10)
I barely raise my voice
to sing slowly,
than the one who runs away screaming (11)
He does not listen to his own song.

If death treacherous
he limits me to his palenque, (12)
give me two whips
the cross for my bedside;
if I die in my burrow
looking at the horizons,
I don't want crosses or aprontes,
nor orders for the Eternal,
maybe spending the winter (13)
the mountain gives me its flowers.

All night I have sung (14)
with a shaken soul,
that the song is the open wound (15)
of a sacred feeling, (14)
I have no one by my side (14)
because he did not seek mercy, (16)
I despise charity (17)
for the shame it contains;
I am like the lion of the mountains, (18)
I live and die in solitude.

(1): Alfredo Zitarrosa says "yo mesmo", in both versions, the one on the album Milonga madre (1970) and the one on Si te vas (1982).

(2): Alfredo Zitarrosa says "the course of thought", in both versions.

(3): Alfredo Zitarrosa says "the countryside is coming out", in his second version.

(4): Ángel Parra says "None will think", in its two versions, the one on the album Ángel Parra y el tumbador afuerino (1967) and the one on The last recital (with Atahualpa Yupanqui) (1999).

(5): Alfredo Zitarrosa says "he must bring", in both versions.

(6): Alfredo Zitarrosa says "because that's how they taught me," in both versions.

(7): Alfredo Zitarrosa says "Always in a low voice", in both versions; and Ángel Parra says "Always bajito hai canta'o", in his first version.

(8): Ángel Parra says "if I've gone too far in the cane", in his first version.

(9): Ángel Parra says "but singing a versea'o", in both versions.

(10): Ángel Parra and Alfredo Zitarrosa, in both respective versions, say "even if losses are counted."

(11): Alfredo Zitarrosa deletes "that" and says "he who runs away screaming", in both versions.

(12): Ángel Parra says "he acogota me en su palenque", in both versions.

(13): Ángel Parra, in both versions, and Alfredo Zitarrosa, in his first version, say "maybe the winter will pass." Alfredo Zitarrosa says "maybe after the winter," in the second.

(14): Alfredo Zitarrosa says "canta'o", "sagra'o" and "la'o", respectively, in both versions.

(15): Alfredo Zitarrosa deletes "that" and says "the song is the open wound", in both versions.

(16): Ángel Parra does not sing the six preceding stanzas, in his first version.

(17): Alfredo Zitarrosa says "I despise charity", in both versions.

(18): Alfredo Zitarrosa says "I am like the lion of the mountains", in both versions, and Ángel Parra says "I am like the lion of the mountains", also in both versions.