Never to Forget

La Argentina sits outside the milonga. It is 1 a.m., and her feet are bare. Her worn shoes are collapsed at her feet. The moan of Pugliese's Y no puedo olvidarte leaks from the heavy wood door, thrown open for the cool breeze. Inside, the shadows of dancers undulate in the stop and start of this torment of a tango.

cuanto más lo intento más quiero recordar.

however much I try to forget you, the more I want to remember

She smokes a cigarette and looks into the white curls and moving tendrils that pass in front of her face, creating a living mask that changes with every breath. Her eyes are gazing into the distance of a thousand miles, and she whispers one line of the song as Maria Graña sings it ...

porque te quiero, hoy más que ayer

because I love you, today more than yesterday

And she tells me, a stranger, her wish. 'I want to meet another man who can make me cry again.'