Dreamers Rise
An Open Notebook
And for those who choose the twisty road, prefer it to the straight
Let joy beat out old misery, as love will conquer hate.
 Illustration by Henry L. Stephens from The Goblin Snob (ca. 1855) | |||
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The following assortment of notes, musings, proposals for future consideration, lists,
and quotations is by design doubly open: exposed to the reader, but also subject to revision, expansion,
excision in a way that a traditional written journal (or even a blog) is not.
Notes on the jazz lyrics in Cortázar's Rayuela (Hopscotch) Cortázar was a great jazz fan. In one section of his novel Rayuela there is a long set-piece, broken up over several chapters, in which the members of the “Club del Serpiente” pass an evening listening to records, most or all of which are American jazz and blues records from the '20s and '30s. In the original Spanish-language text several of the songs are quoted, in English. When the English-language version of the novel, created by Gregory Rabassa, was published, most of these lyrics were changed substantially and, in most cases, without any self-evident reason. This was presumably done with the author's blessing, since he worked closely (if at a substantial geographical remove) with Rabassa on the preparation of the translation. But why? My first assumption was that Cortázar had mangled the lyrics when he wrote the book, either because he was working from memory or because he had difficulty making out the correct lyrics. Though Cortázar was a professional translator and knew English very well, he occasionally shows signs, when he quotes from the language, of being a little uncertain with vernacular expressions (his compositor or publisher may have been more uncertain still), and in a few instances (the lyrics aside) Rabassa clearly cleaned up English phrases that were not idiomatically likely (“This is a plastic's age” being one example). Since Rabassa was a jazz aficionado himself, he may have known or discovered that Cortázar had the lyrics wrong and corrected them, with the author's knowledge. (“It don't mean a thing if it ain't that swing” being one example of an obvious misrembering or printer's error.) But some spot-checking of lyrics on the web suggests that frequently Cortázar's original versions are more accurate than the corrected ones. (Many of these tunes, by the way, can be heard at The Red Hot Jazz Archive.) The only guess I can make — and it's a hesitant one, at best — is that the lyrics were intentionally altered in the Pantheon edition to avoid copyright clearance issues. Some examples follow. Rayuela Chapter 13: ... Don't play me cheap. Satchmo cantaba Don't play me cheap Because I look so meek Hopscotch Chapter 13: ... Don't play me cheap. Satchmo was singing: So what's the use Rayuela Chapter 15: Champion Jack Dupree ... Say goodbye, goodbye to whiskey Lordy, so long to gin, Say goodbye, goodbye to whiskey Lordy, so long to gin, I just want my reefers I just want to feel high again — Hopscotch Chapter 15: Champion Jack Dupree ... So long, whiskey, so long ver-mouth Goodbye, goodbye, gin. So long, whiskey, so long ver-mouth Goodbye, goodbye, gin. Jus' want some good grass 'Cause I wanna turn on again — Rayuela Chapter 15: Big Bill [Broonzy] ... They said if you white, you all right If you brown, stick aroun', But as you black Mm, mm, brother, get back, get back, get back. Hopscotch Chapter 15: Big Bill [Broonzy] ... If you're an ofay, well, you're okay, An' if you're tan, you're all right, man, But if you're brown or black, mmn, Step down, git back, git back. Rayuela Chapter 16: It don't mean a thing if it ain't that swing [obvious error] Hopscotch Chapter 16: It don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing Rayuela Chapter 16: You so beautiful but you gotta die some day, You so beautiful but you gotta die some day, All I want's a little lovin' before you pass away. Hopscotch Chapter 16: Skin like darkness, baby, you gonna die some day, Skin like darkness, baby, you gonna die some day, I jus' want some lovin' be-fore you go your way. [This is an interesting case because after quoting the three lines in a block, Cortázar works them into the text of the following paragraph. So does Rabassa, but curiously he uses the original lyrics, not the substituted ones.] Rayuela Chapter 17: [unidentified] I could sit right here and think a thousand miles away, I could sit right here and think a thousand miles away, Since I had the blues this bad, I can't remember the day — Hopscotch Chapter 17: [unidentified] I can set right here and think three thousand miles away, set right here and think three thousand miles away, can't remember the night had the blues this bad any-way … Rayuela Chapter 106: The Yas Yas Girl [=Merline Johnson]: Well it's blues in my house, from the roof to the ground, And it's blues everywhere since muy [sic] good man left town. Blues in my mail-box cause I cain't get no mail, Says blues in my bread-box 'cause my bread got stale. Blues in my meal-barrel and there's blues upon my shelf And there's blues in my bed, 'cause I'm sleepin' by myself. Hopscotch Chapter 106: [no attribution] Cold feet on the kitchen floor, cold feet on the ground, cold feet everywhere since my man left town. Cold feet in the butcher shop, cold feet in the store since nobody comes around to grind my meat no more. Cold feet on the motor and cold feet on the stones, and cold feet in my bed, 'cause I'm sleeping all alone. Rayuela Chapter 106: Johnny Temple [“Between Midnight And Dawn”]: Between midnight and dawn, baby we may ever have to part, But there's one thing about it, baby, please remember I've always been your heart. Hopscotch Chapter 106: [no attribution] Between now and tomorrow, babe, morning, we'll have to part midnight to morning, babe, tomorrow we'll have to part Please remember just one thing about it, I've always been in your heart. Update (5/18/2005): More evidence that copyright issues may be the explanation: in Chapter 87 of Rayuela there is a nine-line quote from Ellington's “Baby when you ain't there,” I get the blues down NorthIn Rabassa's translation the lines are simply omitted, perhaps because the length of the quote put it beyond the limits of fair use without permission. Incidentally, at least two compilations of most of the quoted tunes have been issued. One, issued by the Institute of Pataphysical Studies of Melbourne, Australia is El Jazz para leer Rayuela / The Jazz to read Hopscotch. The track listing is as follows: Chapter 10 I was able to obtain the above from Leedor.com in Argentina. Some of the tracks are actually later performances that did not exist when Rayuela was written. The CD also includes a reading by Cortázar of Chapter 7 of the novel. A second compilation, which may be obtainable in Europe, is called Jazzuela (Recopilación de Pilar Peyrats K Industria Kultural, Barcelona, 1979). These are the tracks: I'm Coming Virginia Neither compilation appears to have tried to include the songs quoted in Chapter 106. There is, by the way, a different kind of “correction” in the English version of the same author's short story “El Perseguidor” (“The Pursuer”). In the original the jazz musician Johnny Carter (modelled on Charlie Parker) is, somewhat ridiculously, a marijuana fiend; in Paul Blackburn's translation he is, like Parker and more plausibly, a heroin addict. Again, it is likely that this was with Cortázar's blessing, since Blackburn was a good friend (and for a time the author's North American agent). Further reading: Rabassa, Gregory If This Be Treason: Translation & Its Discontents New Directions 2005 (Discusses his work translating Cortázar and other writers.) Cortázar, Julio Cartas (3 volumes) Alfaguara 2000 (Includes some of Cortázar's letters to Rabassa during the time the latter was working on the translation of Rayuela.) April 2005, updated June 2007
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