En gayola y sin bailar

Español · Underlined words are lunfardo: tap one for its meaning.

Él era un maestro barajando el mazo, café y escolazo Riachuelo al sur, la foto que un día firmó Virulazo colgaba en su zapie con rante glamur. Ella era una noble muchacha de Olivos, nunca un colectivo, siempre con chofer, pero eran de ver sus talones altivos en el lujo grácil de su padedé. Y fue escuchando un tango que trenzaron sus vidas, él la fichó enseguida para ofrecerle el brazo y ella que era bacana y un poco presumida se quedó para siempre rendida en el abrazo. Con un disco de Troilo se entraron a querer y los dos fueron uno bailando sin ayer. Ella nunca pudo comprender del todo el whisky barato a la hora del té, pero igual se puso con él codo a codo a planear la timba de la matiné. Caían chorlitos de los cuatro rumbos, tahúres de mundo y otarios con fe, y a todos igual, sin ganzúa ni chumbo les iban piantando los mangos de a cien. El caserón paterno se convirtió en garito ¡pucha si fue bonito mientras duró el festín! Pero lo que era broma resultó ser delito y vieron sus escrachos en tapa de Clarín. Algún día la vida los volverá a juntar, ahora en la gayola no hay pista pa’ bailar.

English · machine translation

He was a master at shuffling the deck, café and gambling south of the Riachuelo, the photo Virulazo signed one day hung in his den with a shabby glamour. She was a well-bred girl from Olivos, never a bus, always with a driver, but you should have seen those haughty heels in the graceful luxury of her pas de deux. And it was listening to a tango that their lives got braided, he spotted her at once and went to offer her his arm and she, who was a fine lady and a little vain, stayed forever, surrendered in the embrace. With a Troilo record they fell in love and the two were one, dancing with no yesterday. She could never quite understand the cheap whisky at teatime, but all the same she stood shoulder to shoulder with him planning the afternoon card game. Suckers dropped in from all four directions, cardsharps of the world and hopeful fools, and from all of them alike, with no picklock and no gun, they went lifting the money a hundred at a time. Her father's big house was turned into a gambling den by God, it was fine while the feast lasted! But what was a joke turned out to be a crime and they saw their mugshots on the front page of Clarín. Some day life will bring them together again, for now, in the cells there's no floor to dance on.