"Port-city slums, on your open patios the stars come out, bathing you in silence. And the yellow moon sows mysteries, walking tiptoe over your rooftops."
I see no evidence that this sweetly nostalgic Homero Manzi lyric (with milonga melody by Felíx Lipesker) was ever recorded. More's the pity, because it is in my opinion a exceptionally beautiful example of tango poetry in general, and Manzi's work in particular. Even so, I find it wholly satisfying to read as poetry, free of direct musical associations.
Update 25-09-2014: Friend and colleague Paul Bottomer has informed me that Arrabal was recorded by Julio De Caro with vocal by Héctor Farrell on 07-10-1939. You can listen below. (The file is 64 kbps, for educational purposes only.) Farrell did not sing the last two stanzas; they are marked with brackets.
Arrabal
Arrabales porteños
De casitas rosadas,
Donde acuna los sueños
El rasguear de las guitarras.
Donde asoma la higuera
Sobre las tapias,
Adornando los muros
Con sus fantasmas.
Sombra,
Telón azul del suburbio
Donde se juega el disturbio
Cuando un amor se envenena.
Y el dolor de la traición
Se hace rencor
Rencor y pena.
Sombra,
Donde los labios se juran,
Mientras la noche murmura
Con su voz de bandoneón.
[Arrabales porteños
En tus patios abiertos,
Las estrellas se asoman
Y te bañan de silencio.
Y la luna amarilla
Siembra misterios,
Caminando en puntillas
Sobre tus techos.]
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Port-city slums
of low pink houses
where the strumming of guitars
rocks you to sleep.
Where a fig tree
overhangs the garden walls,
adorning them
with its fantasms.
Shadow,
blue curtain of the neighborhood
where a riot might break out
when a love affair goes sour,
and the pain of betrayal
produces resentment,
resentment and sorrow.
Shadow,
where lips curse and vow
while the night murmurs
in its bandoneón voice.
Port-city slums,
on your open patios
the stars come out,
bathing you in silence.
And the yellow moon
sows mysteries,
walking tiptoe
over your rooftops.
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