{"id":23503,"date":"2019-10-22T23:45:26","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T03:45:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=23503"},"modified":"2019-10-22T23:45:26","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T03:45:26","slug":"two-poems-by-mario-benedetti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2019\/10\/two-poems-by-mario-benedetti\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Poems by Mario Benedetti"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Mario Benedetti<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mario Benedetti<\/strong> (September 14, 1920 \u2013 May 17, 2009) was one of the most eloquent voices of the New Latin American Literature of the 1960s.  Committed to progressive change and anti-imperialist in form and content, Benedetti\u2019s poems inspired activists and revolutionaries of all stripes for over forty years.  Targeted by the military dictatorship that ruled his native Uruguay in the 1970s and \u201880s, Benedetti spent those years in exile in Argentina, Peru, Cuba, and Spain.  The author of scores of novels, plays, and poetry collections, Benedetti is considered one of the most significant 20el<\/sup> century Latin American authors.  Many of Benedetti\u2019s poems have been set to music and performed by the Argentine cabaret singer Nacha Guevara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll Go Together<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the Spanish by Alfonso Casal<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With your \u201cI can\u201d and my \u201cI will\u201d
We\u2019ll go together, comrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comrade, the same restless
Fate awakens us
You promise and I promised
Together to light this flame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With your \u201cI can\u201d and my \u201cI will\u201d
We\u2019ll go together, comrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Death kills and listens
Life follows later
The only worthwhile union
Is that which unites us in struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With your \u201cI can\u201d and my \u201cI will\u201d
We\u2019ll go together, comrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like a bell
History sounds its lesson:
To enjoy tomorrow
We must fight today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With your \u201cI can\u201d and my \u201cI will\u201d
We\u2019ll go together, comrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For good or bad
We\u2019re innocent no more
Let each take their place
For in this there can be no surrogates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With your \u201cI can\u201d and my \u201cI will\u201d
We\u2019ll go together, comrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some cry \u201cVictory!\u201d
Because the people pay in lives
But these beloved deaths
Are writing history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With your \u201cI can\u201d and my \u201cI will\u201d
We\u2019ll go together, comrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
We’ll go together, comrade.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Distressed, Enraged (a poem on the death of Che Guevara)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Translated from the Spanish by Alfonso Casal<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we are
Distressed
Enraged
Although this death was one of the absurdly predictable ones<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s shameful to look
At pictures
At chairs at rugs
To take a bottle from the refrigerator
To type the three global letters of your name
On the rigid machine
Whose ribbon was never
Ever
So pale<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s shameful to feel cold
And sidle next to stove as always
To be hungry and eat
Such a simple thing
To open the record player and silently listen
Especially if it\u2019s a Mozart quartet<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comfort is shameful
And asthma is shameful
When you, Commander are falling
Bullet-ridden
Fabulous
Irreproachable<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are our conscience, torn apart<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say they burned you
But what fire
Could burn your good
Good news
The irascible tenderness
Which came and went
With your cough
And your wheeze<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They say they incinerated
All of you
Save one finger<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s enough to show the way
To accuse the monster and its lackeys
To squeeze the triggers yet again<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You are dead
You are alive
You are falling
You are cloud
You are rain
You are star<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where you are
If you are
You are arriving<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take the opportunity
To breathe easily at last
To fill your lungs with heaven<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where you are
If you are
You are arriving<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a pity that god doesn\u2019t exist<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there will be others
Surely there will be others
Worthy to welcome you
Commander<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Surely there will be others worthy to welcome you<\/figcaption><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mario Benedetti (September 14, 1920 \u2013 May 17, 2009) was one of the most eloquent voices of the New Latin American Literature of the 1960s. ..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37435,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[183,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-literature","category-media-culture"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b.jpg?fit=300%2C448&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}