DESDE EL ALMA - From the soul (1917)

Music by: Rosita Melo
Lyrics by: Homero Manzi and Piuma Velez in 1948
Translated by: Walter Kane

The making of Desde El Alma

by Alberto Paz

Rosita Melo was born in Uruguay in 1903 but she lived in Argentina since 1906. She wrote the music for Desde El Alma, a Boston-style vals, at age 14 in 1917. In 1922 she married poet Victor Piuma Velez who wrote the first set of lyrics for Desde El Alma. It was a theme dedicated to the love of a mother. In 1948, Homero Manzi called to tell them that he was interested in including the song in his movie Pobre mi madre querida, but with different lyrics as demanded by the movie script. This would not affect the copyright ownership of the song. Piuma Velez and Rosita Melo opposed the idea, and requested that if Manzi wrote new lyrics, Piuma Velez's name should be included as co-author. Manzi agreed, the lyrics became famous and the vals, already a classic became universally famous.

The Boston-vals is a style originated in the city of that name in the United States. It is associated with the piano and its characteristic is that the player does not mark the rhythm with the left hand as it is customary with that instrument. The rhythm is marked witht he right hand along with the melody. The left hand only marks the first note of the beat, the bass.

Edited by Valorie Hart

Version en castellano

English translation

Alma, si tanto te han herido ¿Por qué te niegas al olvido? ¿Por qué prefieres llorar lo que has perdido buscar lo que has querido llamar lo que murió? Vives inútilmente triste y sé que nunca mereciste pagar con penas la culpa de ser buena, tan buena como fuiste, por amor. Fue lo que empezó una vez lo que después dejó de ser. Lo que al final, por culpa de un error fue noche amarga del corazón. ¡Deja esas cartas! Vuelve a tu antigua ilusión. Junto al dolor que abre una herida llega la vida, trayendo amor. Vives inútilmente triste y sé que nunca mereciste pagar con penas la culpa de ser buena tan buena como fuiste, por amor.

Soul, if they have hurt you so much Why do you refuse to forget? Why do you prefer to cry for what you've lost to look for what you've wanted to call for what has died? You live needlessly sad and I know that you never deserved to redeem with sorrow the blame of being good, as good as you were, for love. It was what once began what later ceased to be. What at the end, for the fault of a mistake was a bitter night for the heart. Forget those letters! Come back to your old dream. Together with the pain that opens a wound life arrives, bringing love. You live needlessly sad and I know that you never deserved to redeem with sorrow the blame of being good, as good as you were, for love