Life is a milonga

                                               Tango Bal, acrylic and pastel, 21x 30cm

A milonga is a tango dance or ball and my picture, inspired by a painting by Sonia Delaunay, tries to express the feeling of dancing within a swirl of moving dancers. At a milonga dancers can transcend their cares, forget time, death and disappointment and live fully in the moment.

The following is my translation of an old tango song called ‘Life is a milonga’ (La vida es un milonga )

Everyone in the world hopes
to improve their situation;
everyone lives with a sigh
whether or not they have cause.

 Everyone in the world laments

when things are not going well;
nobody stands in the storm
if it comes against them straight.

 Life is a milonga -

you have to dance to how it goes;
it will leave you behind on the floor
if you are the one to lose the beat.

 Life is a milonga -

you have to dance to how it goes,
because it's sad to sit out
while the others dance on their feet.

(Music: F. Montoni/Lyrics: R. Sciammarella, 1941)

Hear it played on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0cV2hr-4_8