However, a few days ago I was listening to the radio. Jose Luis Sampedro´s wife, fellow writer Olga Lucas, was being interviewed, and she was talking about her recently deceased husband so I knew that he loved tangos, especially this one called "Cambalache". Then the radio broadcast this fantastic song from beginning to end. I paid careful attention to it and I realized that its lyrics remain highly topical, in spite of having been written by Enrique Santos in 1934.
It was then that I decided to choose Cambalache as my favourite song, not only because of its lyrics and the forceful performance by Carlos Gardel but, above all, because I want to show my admiration and respect for Jose Luis Sampedro as well as remember him and his wise thoughts forever and ever through this song:
Cambalache’s lyrics
Original Spanish version
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English translation
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Que el mundo fue y será una
porquería,
ya lo se... 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 ambicion, 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 ladrón! Mezclao con Stavisky va Don Bosco y "La Mignon," Don Chicho y Napoleon, Carnera y San Martin... 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 calefon.
Siglo veinte, cambalache
problemático y febril! El que no llora, no mama, y el que no afana es un gil. Dale nomas! Dale que va! Que allá en el horno nos vamos a encontrar! No pienses mas, 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. |
That the
world was and it will be filth,
I already know... In the year five hundred and six and in the year two thousand too! There always have been thieves, traitors and victims of fraud, happy and bitter people, valuables and imitations But, that the twentieth century is a display of insolent malice, nobody can deny it anymore. We live sunk in a fuzz and in the same mud all well-worn-out ...
Today it turns out it is the same
to be decent or a traitor! To be an ignorant, a genius, a pickpocket, a generous person or a swindler! All is the same! Nothing is better! They are the same, an idiot ass and a great professor! There are no failing grades or merit valuations, the immoral have caught up with us. If one lives in a pose and another, in his ambition, steals, it's the same if it's a priest, a mattress maker, a king of clubs, a cheeky devil or a stowaway.
What a lack of respect,
what a way to run over reason! Anybody is a gentleman! Anybody is 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 mixed up, and wounded by a sword without rivets you can see the Bible crying next to a water heater.
Twentieth century,
a problematic and feverish bazaar! If you don't cry you don't get fed and if you don't steal you're a fool. Go on! Keep it up! That there, in hell we're gonna reunite. Don't think anymore, move out of the way. Nobody seems to care if you were born honest. It doesn’t matter if you work day and night like an ox, or you live off the others, or if you kill or heal or live outside the law. |
My decision might seem strange even if an
absolute agreement with the man who claimed things such as "Freedom of
speech is worthless without freedom of thought" or "The right to life
is widely discussed but nobody refers to the most important, which is the duty
to live life to the full”, is easily understandable.
Jose Luis Sampedro (1917-2013) was an economist
who was proud of the period of his life that he spent as a professor at the
Complutense University in Madrid. Nevertheless, he did not hesitate to resign
from his post to support some colleagues who had been unfairly dismissed. He
always championed a more humane and caring economy. He stated that considering
money as the most essential element in our lives would lead us to catastrophe
and admitted that he was absolutely outraged by how indifferent the current
situation is considered in general.
He could not stand the government´s ignorance and haughtiness.
He was also an exceptional writer. Sampedro's humanist concept inspired him to create literary works such as "El rio que
nos lleva", "Las sombra de los días", "El Mercado y la Globalización". In 1990, he was appointed as a
member of the Royal Spanish Academy. His maiden speech, "Desde la
Frontera", focused on the harmful influence of consumerism on society.
I would like to finish this post with one of
the last paragraphs of this speech, which I do not dare translate into English,
in case it could miss its real essence:
Muy colmado de
ciencia está Occidente, pero muy pobre de sabiduría. Es decir, del arte de
vivir, más aberrante que la ciencia porque, contando con ella, incluye además
el misterio. Ahora no se procura alcanzar la iluminación, sino sentir el
latigazo del deslumbramiento. Se busca el estrépito, lo aparatoso, los focos
publicitarios; no el silencio, lo auténtico, ni el resplandor tranquilo de la
lámpara. Un símbolo de nuestro tiempo es preferir la ducha, rápida, ruidosa y
acribillante, en vez de envolverse voluptuosamente en la líquida seda del baño,
lento y sosegado. Los países de la periferia conservan, aun en su atraso
técnico, más sabiduría y eso es una esperanza para todos, porque cada día es
más urgente compensar el desajuste esencial de esta civilización: el de tener
muchos medios sin saber ponerlos al servicio de la vida.
Jose
Luis Sampedro died on 8th April 2013 after, and I quote him, "having
passed from a placid old age to a bloody awkward one".
This is my humble way
of paying tribute to the late writer, an outstanding human being.
