Sobre nombres
.
All love-letters are
Ridiculous.
They wouldn’t be love-letters if they weren’t
Ridiculous.
I’ve also written love-letters in my time,
Like the others,
Ridiculous.Love-letters, if love there is,
Have to be
Ridiculous.But, in the end,
Only creatures who never wrote
Love-letters?
They’re what’s
Ridiculous.Oh, for the time when I wrote?
Without even thinking?
Those love-letters that were
Ridiculous.The truth is, today
My memories
Of these love-letters
Are what’s really
Ridiculous.(All extravagant words,
Like all extravagant sentiments,
Are naturally
Ridiculous.)- Alvaro de Campos’ last poem, nine days before his death, 10/21/1935.
(real name Fernando Pessoa,
a.k.a. Alberto Caeiro,
a.k.a. Ricardo Reis.)
I got my first tango love letter today. It goes verbatim like this:
“Hello _______,
I was happy to run into you at _______ the other night. I had noticed you before, at _______ a few weeks ago. What lovely eyes. What soft lips. I thought at the time.
But I decided to wait until you improved your dancing before I take you into my embrace. I hope you don’t mind me telling you this. Rest assured that against my expectations, I thought your tango was lovely when I did finally ask you.
Wow, a good looking girl who is talented, AND dances ok! And with a pretty nice personality, too.
Well, I hope you enjoyed our tanda. I’ve been dancing for years, and I can safely say most women enjoy dancing with me. ^___^
Look for me at ________ next week, and say hello. I’d like to take you out to dinner sometime.
Love, your mysterious,
__________.
Ooooookaaaaaay.
Dear Mysterious,
If you are reading this blog, as I am hoping you are, may I suggest that you refrain from opening your mouth at milongas.
I say this, so that other ladies in the future will not be subjected to the disappointment that I now feel, after learning that the fact a man dances nicely does not necessarily preclude the possibility that he will turn out to be a complete idiot off the dancefloor.
May I also suggest that you never again google a woman’s name and send her unsolicited email. In my personal opinion, such an experience calls for a recharging of my stun gun and a sharpening of my butterfly knife.
Thank you.
Ridiculous.
Oh, for goodness sakes!!!
I’m so glad to know that you have a “pretty nice personality, too!”
I was really worried about that. And you dance OK? Your lips are soft?
WHEW! (big sigh of relief)
What is with these guys?!!!
What an ego!! Wow, good response.
And they say we Argentinians have a big ego? Seriously, what happen with men in other places? Why so many post about jerk or dumb men?
Because most of them not only have ego issues, they are plain stupid. They don’t even know how to write a letter to a girl!!!
That happen only with the tangueros?
Ew. Creepy.
dear tangoscopio!
i know…! i looked through my writing, and for every post on a good tanda, there are two bad ones. :( this topic deserves its own post, i think, and i will write about it soon.
so far, i have only met one woman who went coo-coo on me, and i think it was because she was about to have a nervous break-down from sitting so long, poor thing.
for the record, i have yet to meet an argentine man in new york who isn’t witty and intelligent. i wouldn’t know about their private lives, but at least on the surface, they do know how to make this woman melt with their charms. :)
Well, in name of Argentinians men, thanks! :)
And I wasn’t very clear about why are so many post criticizing men… I was talking about most of english writing blogs, not only yours. Almost all have some, or even many post with that kind of subject… Tangueros in that places are so scrub? Of course, you can find some elements like that here, but I think in proportion there are very few. But as a man, maybe my perception is not correct, I don’t have to deal with tangueros.
PD. In my last comment, I put the name of my site(tangoscopio) instead of my nick (tanguillo).
ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!
Unbelievable, what an arrogant /%$#)&$!!! I’m glad you responded so well. I hope he doesn’t bother you again, that creep…
“creep” and “scrub”. those two words made me go onto youtube, and watch those TLC music videos!
i responded to that arrogant /%$#)&$!, after writing this post — i cut and pasted my response directly from my blog. i wonder if he’ll write back.
anyone remember that scene from “bullets over broadway”, where that aging actress is always throwing her hand onto the playwright’s mouth, screaming, “don’t speak! don’t speak!!”
if anyone sees a girl doing that at a milonga from now on, you would know it’s me. :-/
Dianne Wiest rocks that movie! I love her.
You’ll need a turban and a feather boa if you want to do it right, though.
;-)