El cambalache: Twentieth Century Bazaar, a tango by Enrique Santos Discepolo

Enrique Santos Discepolo (1901-1951)

This tango is an attempt to describe the 20th century and how incredibly messed up it all was.

El cambalache- The bazaar (1939)

That the world was and will be full of filth,
I already know...
In the year five hundred and six
and in the year two thousand as well!
There always have been thieves,
traitors and victims of fraud,
happy and bitter people,
valuables and cheap imitations
But, that the twentieth century
is a display
of insolent malice,
nobody can deny it anymore.
We all lived sunk in a quagmire
and covered in the same mud.

Today it happens that to be a decent man or a traitor

is the same thing!
To be an ignoramus, a genius, a pickpocket,
a generous person or a swindler!
It’s all the same! Nothing’s better than another!
They’re all the same, an idiot ass
or a great professor!
There are no failing grades or merit valuations,
the immoral ones have caught up with us.
If one lives as an imposter
and another, in his ambition, steals,
it's the same if it's a priest,
a mattress maker, a king of clubs,
a cad or a tramp.

What a lack of respect,
what a way to trample reason!
Everyone’ s a gentleman!
Everyone’s a thief!
Mixed with Stavinsky, you have Don Bosco
and La Mignon
don Chicho and Napoleon,
Carnera and San Martin.
Like in the disrespectful window
of the bazaars,
life is all mixed up,
and wounded by a sword without rivets
you can see a Bible crying
next to a water heater.

Twentieth century, bazaar
problematic and feverish!
If you don't cry you don't get fed
and if you don't steal you're stupid.
Come on! Go ahead!
Then we'll reunite in hell.
Don't think anymore,
move out of the way.
Nobody seems to care
if you were born honest.
Because it's the same for the one who works,
day and night like a dog,
as it is for someone who lives off other people,
kills, or heals
or lives outside the law.

"Mixed with Stavinsky (a notorious swindler), you have Don Bosco (catholic priest founder of the Salesian Order)
and La Mignon (a well kept lover), don Chicho (the nickname of the infamous head of the Buenos Aires mafia) and Napoleon, Carnera (a popular Italian boxer) and San Martin (Argentina's general who led the forces of liberation from Argentina to Chile and Peru).


El cambalache

Que el mundo fue y será una porquería,
ya lo sé . . . .
En el quinientos seis
y en el dos mil también!
Que siempre ha habido chorros,
maquiavelos y estafaos,
contentos y amargaos,
valores y dublés...
Pero que el siglo veinte
es un despliegue
de maldad insolente
ya no hay quien lo niegue.
Vivimos revolcaos en un merengue
y en un mismo lodo
todos manoseaos...

Hoy resulta que es lo mismo
ser derecho que traidor..!
Ignorante, sabio, chorro,
generoso o estafador!
Todo es igual! Nada es mejor!
Lo mismo un burro
que un gran profesor!
No hay aplazaos ni escalafón,
los inmorales nos han igualao.
Si uno vive en la impostura
y otro roba en su ambición,
da lo mismo que sea cura,
colchonero, rey de bastos,
caradura o polizón...

Que falta de respeto,
que atropello a la razón!
Cualquiera es un señor!
Cualquiera es un ladron!
Mezclao con Stavisky va Don Bosco
y "La Mignon,"
Don Chicho y Napoleon,
Carnera y San Martín...
Igual que en la vidriera irrespetuosa
de los cambalaches
se ha mezclao la vida
y herida por un sable sin remache
ves llorar la Biblia
contra un calefón.

Siglo veinte, cambalache
problemático y febril!
El que no llora, no mama,
y el que no roba es un gil.
¡Dále nomás! Dále que va!
Que allá en el horno
nos vamo a encontrar!
No pienses más,
sentate a un lao.
Que a nadie importa
si naciste honrao.
Que es lo mismo el que labura
noche y día, como un buey
que el que vive de los otros,
que el que mata o el que cura
o está fuera de la ley.