The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #17227   Message #166784
Posted By: Escamillo
22-Jan-00 - 03:01 PM
Thread Name: U want an underworld tango ?
Subject: RE: U want an underworld tango ?
Alice, I think it would be funny to translate the idea, since many words don't have a literal translation, but luckily the idea is universal: in this song, for example, it is a mockery on a "dandy" who is dandy only on Saturday nights and dully tries to imitate the seasoned "kings of the night" - all pimps, gigolós and bums of the city.
For example, laburo = hard working
How would a pimp call the activity of hard working ? Surely with a despective word ! That's the word we should find.
Lunfardo is basically the jargon of prisoners, invented to confuse the ears of the guards (an the police ears on the streets), and has taken many words from Napolitan, Caló, Euskera, Italian, and even English. Popularized by the tango (which has its origins in the marginal world), the Lunfardo has been so widely known that there is an Argentine Academy of the Lunfa, with many recognized poets and intellectual people participating in its research. Then the criminals were forced to change the jargon continually, which makes this more interesting, since it becomes a very LIVE language :)
Chau, que te garúe finito ! (Goodbye, Let the rains be light on you)
Andrés