This Passionate Earth: “To Patrice Lumumba” by Roberto Armijo
Posted: February 15, 2012 Filed under: English, Roberto Armijo, Spanish Comments Off on This Passionate Earth: “To Patrice Lumumba” by Roberto Armijo
Roberto Armijo
(El Salvador, 1937-1997)
“To Patrice Lumumba”
.
This passionate earth.
Earth in love with the bare feet of the antelope’s nomadic gallop.
Earth exploded into reeds ants fountains and geraniums.
Tortured earth climbing in the wild vine that formed your flesh,
Your tongue, your nightingale breast, your assassinated whistle.
You came from the dark sorrow that
bled in the deep African night, you came from a village,
And you wanted the world of tomorrow to also be for Black people.
You didn’t want them extinguished between manure and the dark insides of mines.
You told your brothers that beyond sea, sky, and trees
Humanity was already tilling its path, destiny, and hope.
You knew it was necessary to open their eyes,
Extend their hands and ignite them with joy,
But those who hated your voice,
Those who shook and hovered around your shadow,
Those who assassinated you
Distort your death…your silence:
They pulled out your murmuring heart
And drowned the dove asleep in your blood
But they couldn’t cut off your clear and wild voice,
And since then you haunt their dreams
And the fearful search for you in your apartment’s darkest places
So as not to hear the rumour spread by your songs and poems
That sing in every young breast, on every separate untamed lip
And is freed, trembling,
To arrive each morning at the markets where the partitioned earth surges with
Flowers, vegetables and fruits,
As your voice travels over cities remote regions, wilderness,
Reaching jungles where the wild leopard, the rhinoceros and
The birds are sheltered below the shadow of trees.
Today more than ever they hate you, cannot stand
Hearing your name:
They corner you and blind you under portfolios and padlocks,
In their feverish anger they spit at you and crush you.
But they can’t, they can’t extinguish your voice,
Because in every abused heart, in every affronted Black person,
You are awakening man-the-sleeping-creature, and
With your songs you sing of hope for Black people
And all the people of the world.
* * * * *
Written in the 1970s, Armijo’s poem was a deeply-felt
tribute to a revolutionary hero – Patrice Lumumba –
from an earlier time, 1960-1961, and from another continent,
Africa – The Republic of The Congo specifically.
Patrice Lumumba was briefly Prime Minister of his
newly-independent country, was deposed in a
military coup then executed. The “Congo Crisis” lasted six
years and involved a Cold-War power struggle among
Belgium, The Soviet Union, The USA, and the
secessionist province of Katanga.
*
Roberto Armijo’s own country, El Salvador,
was at the onset of a similar conflict at
the time he wrote this poem – a civil war
exacerbated by powerful foreign (mainly
the USA) manipulation of the country’s
internal affairs.
* * * * *
Roberto Armijo
(Poeta d’El Salvador, 1937-1997)
“A Patricio Lumumba”
.
Esta tierra ardorosa.
La tierra enamorada del pie descalzo del nómada galope del antílope.
La tierra torturada trepadora en la enredadera salvaje
Modeló tu carne tu lengua tu pecho de ruiseñor tu silbo asesinado.
Tu venías del dolor oscuro que sangraba en la honda noche de Africa
Venías de la aldea
Y deseabas que la mañana del mundo también fuera del negro.
Tu no querías que el negro se apagara entre el estierco
Y la oscuridad de las minas.
A tus hermanos les hablabas que mas allá del mar del cielo y de los árboles
El hombre ya labraba su destino su misión su esperanza.
Tu sabías que era necesario abrir los ojos
Extender las manos y encenderlas de júbilo
Pero los que odiaban tu voz los que temblaban y rondaban tu sombre
Urdían tu muerte tu silencio
Te asesinaron
Te sacaron el corazón rumoroso
Y ahogaron la paloma dormida de tu sangre
Pero tu voz clara y silvestre no la pudieron segar
Y desde entonces temen
Te sueñan y medrosos buscan los sitios más oscuros de tu habitaciones
Para no oír el rumor dilatado de tus canciones
De tus poemas que en cada pecho joven
En cada labio indómito y segregado canta y se suelta temblando
Para llegar matinal a los mercados donde se alza la tierra repartida
En las flores las verduras y las frutas
Tu voz recorre las ciudades las regiones remotas y agrestes
Llega a las selvas donde se guarecen bajo la sombre de los árboles
El leopardo salvaje en rinoceronte y los pájaros.
Hoy más que nunca te odian ya no quisieran
ni oír tu nombre.
Te arrinconan y bajo portafolios y candados
Te ciegan y en su fiebre colérica te escupen te estrujan.
Pero no pueden pero no pueden apagar tu voz
Porque en cada pecho maltratado en cada negro afrentado
Estás tú despertando al hombre a la criatura dormida
Y con tus versos cantas la mañana del negro
Y del hombre del mundo.
.
Translation from Spanish into English: David Volpendesta
Traducción del español al inglés: David Volpendesta
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Zócalo Poets 