Muñeca Brava: One hell of a woman…!

Enrique Cadícamo in 1941.

Here's another well-known tango from Luis Visca and Enrique Cadícamo (authors of Compadrón, featured in an earlier post). Carlos Gardel recorded it in 1929 with the original Lunfardo-rich lyrics intact. A bowdlerized, de-Lunfardized version was recorded by Alberto Castillo with Ricardo Tanturi's orchestra (1942), and subsequent versions seem to follow the Castillo pattern. An exception is Lalo Martel's 1959 version with De Angelis, which is fairly faithful to the original. Tango Decoder's English-language version of Muñeca Brava is below, followed by our notes.

Muñeca brava*
(Femme Fatale)
Tango
1929
Music: Luis Visca
Lyric: Enrique Cadícamo

Che madam que parlás en francés y tirás ventolín a dos manos, que escabiás copetín bien frapé y tenés gigoló bién bacán… Sos un biscuit de pestañas muy arqueadas… Muñeca brava bien cotizada. Sos del Trianón… del Trianón de Villa Crespo… Milonguerita, juguete de ocasión… Tenés un camba* que te hacen gustos y veinte abriles que son diqueros, y muy repleto tu monedero pa´ patinarlo de Norte a Sud… Te baten todos Muñeca Brava porque a los giles mareás sin grupo, pa´ mi sos siempre la que no supo guardar un cacho de amor y juventud. Campaneá la ilusión que se va y embrocá tu silueta de rango, y si el llanto te viene a buscar escurrí tu dolor y reí… Meta champán que la vida se te escapa, Muñeca Brava, flor de pecado… Cuando llegués al final de tu carrera, tus primaveras verás languidecer

Hey* madame who parlez-vous français* And spends money hand over fist,* Who drinks her cocktails well iced* And keeps a gigolo in high style…. You’re a sweet biscuit, Eyelashes well curled…. Muñeca Brava, femme fatale, High-priced. You’re from the Trianon… The Club Trianon in the Villa Crespo,* Foxy milonguera Dangerous toy…. You’ve got a loverboy to pleasure you And twenty good years to brag about.* Your purse is full enough To gamble it away North and South. They all call you Muñeca Brava, Because you get the chumps* all dizzy, and that’s no lie, To me you’ll always be the gal who didn’t know How to preserve even a speck* of love and youth. See the dream that eluded you, And take a good look at your imposing silhouette. And if the tears ever manage to catch up with you Give pain the slip, and laugh it off…. Swill* champagne as life slips away, Muñeca Brava, flower of sin, When you reach the end of your career Then you’ll see your primroses wilt.

*Muñeca Brava: Muñeca (Lunf.) denotes an attractive young woman (literally “doll”). Brava (Lunf.) denotes a sexually provocative woman. Hence Muñeca Brava is more or less equivalent to the French/English femme fatale.

*Che: Interjection used to get someone's attention. "Che, pibe, traeme un café."

*madame who parlez-vous français: The original is madam que parlás en francés. Parlás is from the French verb parler, to speak, but with the Spanish inflection -ás. The narrator/singer is imitating the sound of French. French women were highly prized as prostitutes, mistresses, singers, etc., and many who were not French assumed Frenchified identities.

*spends money hand over fist: tirás ventolín a dos manos, literally, “you throw money (ventolín, Lunf.) with both hands.”

*drinks her cocktails well iced: escabiás copetín bien frapé. Escabiás, from escabiar (Lunf.), verb of Italian origin, means to drink alcoholic beverages, usually with the intention to get drunk. Frapé from the French, frappé, iced.

*Trianon…Trianon in Villa Crespo: A double-entendre referring to the Trianon palace at Versaille and, in thinly veiled form, the Petit Trianon, a notorious brothel located on Pichincha Street, a red-light district in Rosario.

*twenty good years to brag about: veinte abriles que son diqueros. Abriles (Lunf.) are years (literally, Aprils) and a diquero (Lunf.) is a show-off, one who brags.

*chumps: giles are chumps or marks (Lunf.)

*sin grupo: grupo (Lunf.) is a deception or a lie.

*speck: un cacho (Lunf.), a speck or fragment. 

*swill: Meta (Lunf.)

Other Tango Decoder versions by Enrique Cadícamo:
Argañaraz  •  Compadrón  •  El cuarteador  •  No vendrá  •  Si la llegaran a ver  •  Tres esquinas  •  Tu llamado  •  Un dilema