A favor de la nostalgia
El presente es el mayor tesoro, pero me choca esa tozuda politización del sentimiento, que a veces es ignorante, pero también puede ser noble
Nostalgia, says the tango, "enjoying its crazy laugh and feeling its breath by my lips." Another familiar line comes to mind: "I always return to the old places where I loved life, and then I understand how dear things have gone missing," words that sounded true when sung by Mercedes Sosa, and now, in the hoarse voice of Amaia, they hurt like a premonition of the future.
"Only what is denied does the man sing, only what is lost, only nostalgia, always the same," the verses of García Calvo said in Amancio Prada's voice. One wonders if, if we erased the forward-looking gaze of the past from songs, we would be left with little more than a catalog of laments. I experienced my first sparks of nostalgia as a young girl listening to boleros sung by my mother as she shuffled around the house.
Her small, soft voice returns to me when I sing them, though my voice is that of a woman nearly twenty years her senior when she passed away. Even pop music, ever celebrating the present, has left memorable ballads that lament what will be lost. One need not mention folk, closer to the earth and to lost paradises. When remembering Serrat, his summers in Aragón put words to my memories: "It's not that I'm leaving because I've forgotten / it's that I lost the path back," he sang to his mother.
Written by urgent.news from El Pais's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
