SOURCE: Todo Tango
Balada para un loco
Tango 1969
Music: Astor Piazzolla
Lyrics: Horacio Ferrer
Afternoons in Buenos Aires have that "what do I know," you know? You leave your house, by Arenales. The usual: in the street and in you. . . . When, all of a sudden, from behind a tree, I appear. A strange mixture of penultimate linyera and first stowaway on the voyage to Venus: half a melon on my head, the stripes of my shirt painted on my skin, two half-soles nailed to my feet, and a free cab flag raised in each hand. You laugh!... But only you see me: because the mannequins wink at me; the traffic lights give me three light blue lights, and the oranges from the fruit vendor on the corner throw orange blossoms at me. Come here! so, half dancing and half flying, I take off my melon to greet you, I give you a little flag, and I tell you...
(Sung)
I know I'm piantao, piantao, piantao...
Don't you see that the moon is rolling down Callao;
that a chorus of astronauts and children, with a waltz,
dances around me... Dance! Come! Fly!
I know that I'm piantao, piantao, piantao...
I look at Buenos Aires from a sparrow's nest;
and I saw you so sad... Come! Fly! Feel!...
the crazy berretín that I have for you:
Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!
When night falls on your porteña solitude,
by the shore of your sheet I will come
with a poem and a trombone
to unveil your heart.
Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!
Like a demented acrobat I will jump,
over the abyss of your cleavage until I feel
that I drove your heart of freedom crazy...
You'll see!
(Recited)
Let's go flying, my dear;
hop on my super-sport illusion,
and let's race along the ledges
with a swallow in the engine!
From Vieytes they applaud us: "Viva! Viva!",
the madmen who invented Love;
and an angel and a soldier and a girl
give us a little dancing waltz.
The beautiful people come out to greet us...
And crazy, but yours, what do I know:
I provoke bell towers with laughter,
and at last, I look at you, and sing in a half voice:
(Sung)
Love me like this, piantao, piantao, piantao...
Climb into this crazy tenderness in me,
put on this wig of larks, and fly!
Fly with me now! Come, fly, come!
Love me like this, piantao, piantao, piantao, piantao...
Open the loves that we are going to try
the magical total madness of reviving...
Come, fly, come! Bring-lai-la-la-larará!
(Shouted)
Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!
Crazy her and crazy me...
Crazy! Crazy! Crazy! Crazy!
Crazy her and crazy me!