This beautiful vals was composed by Clotilde Mela Rosa Luciano, better known as Rosita Melo (July 9, 1897 – August 12, 1981). Rosita was born in Uruguay, she was a poet, composer and pianist. Rosita was just 14 years of age when in 1911 she composed her first and now world-famous “Desde el Alma” which translates into English as “From the Soul”. Her husband Victor Piuma Vélez wrote the first set of lyrics for it years later but in 1948 Homero Manzi re-wrote the lyrics which ultimately became universally famous.
The version that follows is an instrumental by Francisco Canaro, and is often danced to at milongas across the world.
ENGLISH:
Soul, if they have hurt you so much
Why do you refuse to forget?
Why do you prefer
to cry for what you’ve lost
to look for what you’ve wanted
to call for what has died?
You live needlessly sad
and I know that you never deserved
to redeem with sorrow
the blame of being good,
as good as you were, for love.
It was what once began
what later ceased to be.
What at the end, for the fault of a mistake
was a bitter night for the heart.
Forget those letters!
Come back to your old dream.
Together with the pain
that opens a wound
life arrives, bringing love.
You live needlessly sad
and I know that you never deserved
to redeem with sorrow
the blame of being good,
as good as you were, for love.
*Source of translation: Wikipedia
SPANISH:
Alma, si tanto te han herido,
¿por qué te niegas al olvido?
¿Por qué prefieres
llorar lo que has perdido,
buscar lo que has querido,
llamar lo que murió?
Vives inútilmente triste
y sé que nunca mereciste
pagar con penas
la culpa de ser buena,
tan buena como fuiste
por amor.
Fue lo que empezó una vez,
lo que después dejó de ser.
Lo que al final
por culpa de un error
fue noche amarga del corazón.
¡Deja esas cartas!
¡Vuelve a tu antigua ilusión!
Junto al dolor
que abre una herida
llega la vida
trayendo otro amor.
Alma, no entornes tu ventana
al sol feliz de la mañana.
No desesperes,
que el sueño más querido
es el que más nos hiere,
es el que duele más.
Vives inútilmente triste
y sé que nunca mereciste
pagar con penas
la culpa de ser buena,
tan buena como fuiste
por amor.
Blog written by: Beatriz Diaz
