Connections with the land - Vidala triste [Sorrowful vidala]

Chalchal: Mauro Halpern

This vidala  is also about trees - three trees in fact.  The first two - or their wood - are metaphors for the kind of love that the singer hoped for compared to what she got but the last one is about an empathetic willow that connects with the singer in her sorrow and weeps with her.  The song, while ostensibly about that evergreen theme, lost love, is also about our ties with the land and nature and the solace we can find there. The stone is a metaphor for the fateful moment of falling in love.  Even the caja is made from the gifts of the land, and the song, from the singer, who is of the people of that land.

Bien haiga la piegra¹ lisa

que en ella me resbalé

bien haiga mi negro lindo
que del yo me enamoré.²

Blessed be the smooth stone
on which I slipped
blessed be my handsome black man
with whom I fell in love.

Palo 'i chalchal³
palo 'i nogal
para eso me has traido
pa' hacerme llorar.

Wood of the chalchal tree
wood of the walnut tree
for that, you have brought me
to make me cry.⁴

Esta cajita⁵ que toco
tiene boca y sabe hablar
solo los ojos le faltan
pa' acompañarme a llorar.⁶

This little drum I play
has a mouth and knows how to speak
it only lacks eyes
to accompany me in crying.

Debajo de un sauce verde
triste yo me lamentaba
como el árbol que era tierno
y al verme llorar, lloraba.

Under a green willow
sadly I lamented
like the tree that was tender
and seeing me cry, it cried.

Letra: Motivo Popular.

Música: Motivo Popular.

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1. Piegra is either a typo or regional variation of stone.

2. The singer congratulates the smooth stone ("la piegra lisa") which caused her to slip.  It is a metaphor for something fateful, that unexpectedly caused something  uncontrollable to happen ("me resbalé" - I slipped) in the singer's life.  Usually we think of slipping as dangerous and unwanted but in this case it could be the moment they fell in love.  This initially pleasurable slip does indeed though turn out to be harmful.  The slip leads to the subsequent lines expressing affection for their "negro lindo" 

3. The chalchal tree is found in north west Argentina and parts  of Bolivia, Paraguay and Brazil. One of its common names is chalchal, "se debe a que sus frutos comestibles son buscados por aves como los zorzales: [incluso] Turdus rufiventris Vieillot, zorzal colorado, conocidos como “chalchaleros” o “zorzales”. It's edible fruits are sought after by birds which include the rufous bellied thrush, known as chalchaleros, after which the famous, eponymous folk group is named.  The bird is emblematic of the Salta region from where the group also originated.

4. The verse is not straightforward. Chalchal wood is described: "La madera amarillenta-oscura blanda y liviana, de poca duración, se utiliza para leña y carbón." [The yellowish-dark wood, soft and light, of short duration, is used for firewood and charcoal.].  In contrast, walnut wood is a dark, precious hardwood.  A metaphor for her envisioned future or lover: she hoped to find a relationship that was precious and lasting but ended up with something poor quality, cheap and ephemeral. 

So the negro lindo has brought the singer to this uncomfortable situation "para eso, me has traido" in which she cries.

5. A cajita [little drum] is an instrument that often accompanies the coplas in north westers Argentina.  It is a hand drum shaped like a large tambourine and beaten with a baton.

6. This verse is repeated in another song Te he i' de olvidar [I must forget you] performed by  Mariana Carrizo, which I previously mentioned and which you can see on Youtube, delicately accompanied by the accordeonist, Chango Spasiuk. 

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