Poetry Thursday, apparently. :waves to Viv::
staranise posted this piece and I kid you not, my shoulders came down while I read it. I hadn't even known my shoulders were *tense*. Anyway. Long, so behind the cut tag, but I thought it was amazing.
Por Que Cantamos
If each hour brings its death
if time is a den of thieves
the breezes carry a scent of evil
and life is just a moving target
you will ask why we sing
if our finest people are shunned
our homeland is dying of sorrow
and the human heart is shattered
even before shame explodes
you will ask why we sing
if the trees and the sky remain
as far off as the horizon
some absence hovers over the evening
and disappointment colors the morning
you will ask why we sing
we sing because the river is humming
and when the river hums the river hums
we sing because cruelty has no name
but we can name its destiny
we sing because the child because everything
because in the future because the people
we sing because the survivors
and our dead want us to sing
we sing because shouting is not enough
nor is sorrow or anger
we sing because we believe in people
and we shall overcome these defeats
we sing because the sun recognizes us
and the fields smell of spring
and because in this stem and that fruit
every question has its answer
we sing because it is raining on the furrow
and we are the militants of life
and because we cannot and will not
allow our song to become ashes.
Uruguay, 1979
Mario Benedetti
Translated by D’Arcy Martin
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