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Allende
(English translation of 'Allende' by Mario Benedetti)
In order to kill the man of peace
to knock the bad dreams out of his head
they had to become a bad dream
to defeat the man of peace
they had to bring together every hatred
and add in planes and tanks
to defeat the man of peace
they had to bomb him, set him on fire
because the man of peace was a fortress
to kill the man of peace
they had to unleash the shady war
to vanquish the man of peace
to silence his modest and piercing voice
they had to push terror to the abyss
and kill more just to keep killing
to defeat the man of peace
they had to murder him again and again
because the man of peace was a fortress
to kill the man of peace
they had to imagine he was a troop
an armada an army a brigade
they had to believe he was an opposing army
but the man of peace was just the people
he held in his hands a rifle and a mandate
and they had to have more tanks more rancour
more bombs more planes more shame
because the man of peace was a fortress
in order to kill the man of peace
to knock the bad dreams out of his head
they had to become a bad dream
to defeat the man of peace
they had to be forever affiliated with death
to kill and kill more to keep killing
and be condemned to bullet-proof isolation
to kill the man that was the people
they had to end up without the people.
Note: The Allende of the poem's title is Salvador Allende, the former President of Chile. He committed suicide at the end of the September 1973 coup carried out by the Chilean military aided by the United States.
For more translations of poems by Mario Benedetti, go to Translations. |
