Need your love so bad: Los poemas amorosos de Catulo en las letras de blues

Abstract

En el 32, Ellington grabó “Baby when you ain't there”, uno de sus temas menos alabados y al que el fiel Barry Ulanov no dedica mención especial. Con voz curiosamente seca canta Cootie Williams los versos: «I get the blues down North, The blues down South, Blues anywhere, I get the blues down East, Blues down West, Blues anywhere. I get the blues very well O my baby when you ain't there ain't there, ain't there.» ¿Por qué, a ciertas horas, es tan necesario decir: "Amé esto"? Amé unos blues, una imagen en la calle, un pobre río seco del norte. Dar testimonio, luchar contra la nada que nos barrerá. Así quedan todavía en el aire del alma esas pequeñas cosas, un gorrioncito que fue de Lesbia, unos blues que ocupan en el recuerdo el sitio menudo de los perfumes, las estampas y los pisapapeles (Julio Cortázar, “Rayuela”, 87).

In 1932, Ellington recorded “Baby when you ain't there”, one of his least praised numbers and one to which the faithful Barry Ulanov does not give any special mention. With a curiously dry voice Cootie Williams sings the lyrics: «I get the blues down North, The blues down South, Blues anywhere, I get the blues down East, Blues down West, Blues anywhere. I get the blues very well O my baby when you ain't there ain't there, ain't there.» Why is it so necessary at certain times to say: “I loved that”? I loved some blues, an image in the street, a poor dry river in the north. Giving testimony, fighting against the nothingness that will sweep us all away. That’s how in the air of the soul little things like that will linger, a sparrow that belonged to Lesbia, some blues that in the memory will fill the small space saved for perfumes, stamps, and paperweights (Julio Cortázar, “Hopscotch”, 87).