Cold in hand blues — Bessie Smith

Me quedé pensando en el infierno musical al que Pizarnik hace referencia en el título de su libro y del que extraje un poema para la entrada anterior… Y claro que existe esa relación musical. Cold in hand blues es el título de una canción de blues escrita y compuesta por Jack Gee y Fred Longshaw en 1925 y que fue interpretada por la gran Bessie Smith, “la emperatriz del blues”. Un dato y una relación no menor para tener en cuenta al leer el poema homónimo de Pizarnik, ¿no?


Cold in hand blues

I've got a hardworkin' man,
the way he treats me I can't understand;
he works hard every day
and on Sat'day throws away his pay!
Now I don't want that man,
because he's gone cold in hand.

Now I've tried hard to treat him kind,
I've tried hard to treat him kind,
but it seems to me his love has gone blind.

The man I've got must have lost his mind.
The man I've got must have lost his mind,
the way he treat me I can't understand.

I'm gonna find myself another man.
I'm gonna find myself another man,
because the one I've got has done gone cold in hand.

Bessie Smith: The complete recordings, Vol. 2, 1991.