# Help with Spanish: Tu el cielo y tu

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-spanish-tu-el-cielo-y-tu/535722>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 11, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-spanish-tu-el-cielo-y-tu/535722 "2010-04-11T11:22:22Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-spanish-tu-el-cielo-y-tu/535722/1 "2010-04-11T11:22:22Z")

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Could anyone help me to at least partly understand my favourite Argentine tango?

I’m trying to figure out what the deal is with the central metaphor of “tu el cielo y tu”. I’ve tried google translation and I’ve thrown my limited Italian at the Spanish lyrics, but I’m not sure I understand.

Chorus goes like this:  
“Tú…  
yo sé que el cielo,  
el cielo y tú,  
vendrán acá para salvar  
mis manos presas a esta cruz.”

My best guess is something like: “Only you or heaven will (can?) save me from this cross”. Am I anywhere near? Or perhaps it is poetic and vague even in Spanish? I love dancing to this one and would love to have an idea of what it is about.

Rest of the lyrics are [here](http://www.todotango.com/spanish/las_obras/letra.aspx?idletra=3181) and in case you’d like to hear it (vocal doesn’t come in until halfway through) and watch a fabulous couple dancing to it to then go [here](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpHouXWd_n8).

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**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-spanish-tu-el-cielo-y-tu/535722/2 "2010-04-11T11:38:25Z")

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From that stanza:

“You  
I know that heaven  
heaven and you  
will come here to save  
me from this cross (my hands tied to this cross)”

But going by the rest of the song, the above is a “lie”. The lovers have departed (woman left), and the broken-hearted man is hoping for a comeback, hence that stanza.

Yet, in the next verses, he sings something like this: If this (what I said before) is a lie, please don’t tell me it is a lie. If you tell me it is a lie, it would be crueler than just believing it. Keep it to yourself. Don’t tell me more goodbye, let only God, heaven, and you know.

Does this make sense? He prefers to believe in the lie that his lover will come back than accept she won’t return.

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**Author:** ![PookahMacPhellimey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pookahmacphellimey/32/3175_2.png) [@PookahMacPhellimey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PookahMacPhellimey)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-spanish-tu-el-cielo-y-tu/535722/3 "2010-04-11T11:48:35Z")

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> [@KarlGrenze](#):
>
> Yet, in the next verses, he sings something like this: If this (what I said before)  
> Does this make sense? He prefers to believe in the lie that his lover will come back than accept she won’t return.

Yes, that makes perfect and, IMO, also beautiful sense in a melancholic tango sort of way. Thanks so much for explaning the entire song.

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**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\
**Post date:** [April 11, 2010, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-with-spanish-tu-el-cielo-y-tu/535722/4 "2010-04-11T12:27:03Z")

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Tango = depressing songs. 😉