No Words - Enrique Santos Discépolo

It was born from you,
in search of a song to bring us together,
now I know that it’s cruel—brutal, even—
my punishment for you.

With no words
this music will still wound you,
wherever your betrayal may hear it…
On the most absurd night, on the saddest day,
when you laugh, or when your dreams weep.

Forgive me, if it is God
who tried to punish you, in the end…
if there are sobs that can hound you so,
if these notes born from your love
are in the end a cilice that opens
the wounds of a story—
They are torments, they are memories!
Wounded puppet, my own sorrow
will surge
every time
you hear this song!

It was born from you…
a future made of lies among hopes,
now I know that it’s cruel—brutal, even—
my punishment for you.

This song will speak your name without saying it,
and without saying it, I will be beside your name,
eyes half blind from my shock,
along with the shock of not dying from your loss.

---

Enrique Santos Discépolo (1901 - 1951) Argentina
Translated by Derrick Del Pillar
Source: The Poetry of the Tango

• The tile of the song Sin palabras also carries the more literal meaning “wordlessly,” as in the second verse, is often translated in many contexts as  “speechless”—e.g., “se quedó sin palabras” means “she was struck speechless,” often in astonishment or terror. In modern colloquial English, speakers may also say, “I have no words” when they are at a loss to respond to a terrible situation.
• Cilice is a hair shirt, spiked garter, or any similar device worn by some zealous Catholic penitents as a constant reminder of their sinful nature.
• "Wounded puppet" fantoche can be a puppet (a marionette or a Punch-and-Judy type, or an easily manipulated person, as in English), but it also refers to a silly person who is falsely boastful—a braggart, a windbag.