Embedded Files
Transcription: Warren Edwardes (c) 2018-07-24
Translation: Warren Edwardes (c) 2018-07-24
"Merceditas"
Simbolo Osmar Maderna directed by Aquiles Roggero, c. Adolfo Rivas, Raúl Aldao 1958-09-24
Music: Ramón Sixto Ríos
Lyrics: Ramón Sixto Ríos
Note that this song was recorded by Roggero and not by Maderna who had died several years before.
"Merceditas"
"Merceditas"
Que dulce encanto tienen
Mis recuerdos Merceditas
Aromada florecita
Amor mío de una vez.
La conocí en el campo
alla muy lejos, una tarde
donde crecen los trigales
provincia de Santa Fé.
Asi nació nuestro querer
con ilusión con mucha fé
pero no se porqué la flor
se marchitó y muriendo fué
como una queja errante
en la campiña va flotando
el eco vago de mi canto
recordando aquel amor
porque a pesar del tiempo
transcurrido es Merceditas
la leyenda que palpita
en mi nostálgica canción.
Y amándola con loco amor
asi llegué a comprender
lo que es querer, lo que es sufrir
porque le di mi corazón.
lo que es querer, lo que es sufrir
porque le di mi corazón.
"Merceditas" [Literal Translation]
"Merceditas" [Literal Translation]
What sweet charm they have
My memories of Merceditas
Floral aromas
My love a time ago.
I met her in the countryside
far away, one afternoon
where the wheat grows
In the Province of Santa Fe.
This is how our love was born
with hope with lots of faith
but I do not know why the flower
Of love withered and died
It is a wandering torment
over the fields it floats
the vague echo of my singing
remembering that love
because despite the time
elapsed it's Merceditas
the legend that throbs
in my nostalgic song.
And loving her with crazy love
So I came to understand
what it is to love, what it is to suffer
because I gave my heart to her
what it is to love, what it is to suffer
because I gave my heart to her
Notes
A few days ago a Tanguera asked me to name a song. We went outside the milonga and I listened to the song on her phone. It was a video of a performance and the sound wasn't particularly good.
A lovely song - Merceditas - that I never get tired of. Great lyrics and masterful orchestration and a pair of tango singers who can actually sing.
Some of the transcriptions of Merceditas have "campaña" rather than what I hear "Campiña". "Campaña is a campaign like an electoral or advertising campaign. "Campiña" is what I hear and is more appropriate as it is "extensive cultivated countryside".
Merceditas as we see is not a small posh car. For Merceditas was the nick name of another Mercedes also of German origin.
Extracting from Merceditas (canción) on Wikipedia (in Spanish and translating) with additions [WE]
Merceditas is a well-known song of Argentine folklore, in rhythm of chamamé, by Ramón Sixto Ríos, in the 1940s.
It is an unrequited love song, considered together with "Zamba de mi Esperanza" as the most famous folk music of Argentina and one of the thirteen most popular popular songs of Argentina.
It seems to me to be be even more popular in the Gaucho areas of Brazil [WE]
"Merceditas" [Little Mercedes] was Mercedes Strickler Kahlow (21-12-1916 - 08-07-2001), a young peasant girl who lived in Humboldt, province of Santa Fe, with whom in 1939 the author maintained a relationship of unrequited love, which inspired the song.
Rios married but was widowed shortly after and had no children, while Merceditas never married.
Several decades later, being now elderly, Ramón and Mercedes met again.
They were put in touch via a radio programme producer. [WE]
He then again proposed to her, but she rejected him once more. They remained in close contact until the death of Rios, on 25 December 1995.
His last act was to bequeath to her the rights to the song. She lived to be 84 years old with the feeling that God had punished her for having rejected him.
Such a sad story that always makes me cry [WE]
Was Merceditas a Lesbian?
Not just a lovely sweet song the lyrics and the background storyline make a profound impact. It is about Mercedes Strickler Kharkov.
Merceditas was an unusual woman of that time. With a fiercely independent spirit, she could be seen in town on a motorcycle wearing leopard print trousers, boots and a leather jacket.
In 1939, ages 26 Ramón Sixto Ríos met the 23-year old Mercedes Strickler Khalov in Humboldt, while touring with a theatre company. Ramón Sixto Ríos was the author of the love story "Merceditas".
Merceditas was the daughter of German immigrants. As a little girl her father died and she had worked with her mother and sister managing the family dairy farm in Humboldt, in the Argentine province Santa Fe.
Ramón and Merceditas met at the Club Sarmiento in Humboldt when he was singing in a show. After the performance he invited her to dance a tango.
Merceditas was an unusual woman of that time. She was of a fiercely independent spirit. Dressed in leopard print trousers wearing boots and a leather jacket, she could often be seen on a motorcycle on the streets of Humboldt and around. She also rode horses astride.
She had many suitors in addition to Ramón Sixto Ríos who over decades before and after his marriage did all he could to win her over. But she never married.
Merceditas was "butch" in her dress sense given the styles of the day. But was she a Lesbian?
At that time in the early 1940s and for very many decades afterwards until the 1980s homosexuality was illegal. So was being a lesbian in an environment where that was illegal stopped her from marrying Ramón or anyone else?
Brazilians Rildo and Riany singing Merceditas in Portuguese.
The Brazilian Gaucho band Grupo Querência playing Merceditas
Report abuse