“Que me quiten lo bailao” by Ricardo Tanturi y su Orquesta Típica with Alberto Castillo in vocals, 1943 (English translation).

“Open hand with men, and upright in any ordeal,
I have two fierce passions: the felt and the liquor…
Dancer from a good school, there is no milonga where I’m surplus,
sometimes I am poor and other times I am a lord.
What do you want me to do, brother? It’s a gift of fate!
The urge to save money has never been my virtue!
The bubbles and women’s eyes electrify me
from those sweet days of my joyful youth!

But I do not regret
those beautiful moments
that I squandered in life.
I had everything I wanted…
and even what I did not want,
the fact is that I enjoyed it.
My conduct was serene,
I was generous in good times
and in bad times, I shrank.
I was a magnate and a vagabond
and today I know the world so well
that I prefer to be this way.

What do you want me to do, brother! I was born to die poor,
with a tango between my lips and in a muddled game of cards.
I play, sing, drink, laugh… and even if I don’t have a penny left,

when the last hour strikes… let them take away what I danced!”