Not too long ago I was at a Duo Guardabarranco concert in the Teatro Nacional with one of the semester program students Emily and "Prof. Jeff"--and afterwards we wandered up the boulevard (I've always thought boulevard is a cool word, don't you?) to the corner store--a place called the On the Run, but is actually more like On the Crawl--where we saw none other than Salvador Cardenal (left), the brother within the famous duo, whose fame began during the cultural revolution that occurred here in Nicaragua as a result of the Sandinista Revolution in the 1980s.Anyway, one of their songs that I really like is called "Por Un Mundo Justo" , translated below.
No me digas que [Don't tell me]
esto a vos no te importa Porque fuiste niño [that this doesn't matter]
un día y ya se te olvidó [b/c you were a child and you've forgotten]
Cuando ves un niño ves un espejo [When you look at a child, you see a mirror]
De toda la raza humana... ves el porvenir [of the human race]
Cuando ya este mundo no sea nuestro Será [When this world is no longer ours]
de los niños que nos ven vivir Será [of the children that see us it will be]
de los hijos que vienen de ti [of the children that come from you]
Por un mundo justo para los niños [for a just world for the children]
Amasaremos pan de tierra y flores compartido
[We will make mud pancakes & shared flowers]
Por un mundo alegre para los niños [for a joyful world for the children]
Convertiremos armas en cuadernos y acuarelas
[we will trade weapons for notebooks and watercolors]
Por un mundo libre para las niñas [for a free world for the girls]
Trabajaremos con un solo corazón unido [We will work with one heart]Por un mundo digno para los niños [for a world worthy of the children]
Cuando un pajarito cae del nido [when a bird falls from the nest]
Y no sabe aun volar...niño sin hogar [and doesn't know how to fly, homeless]
Cara sucia, pícara, risa limpia [dirty face, clean smile]
Descalcita y sin comer... ¿quien te va a querer?
[barefoot and hungry, who will want you?]
Ay! que suerte el que te halle en su camino
[Oh, what luck he who finds you in his path]
Puede darte amor y abrir su corazón
[he can give you love and open your heart]
Every time I listen to this song, I think about the world we are leaving to the children and wish that we really would trade our weapons for watercolors.
4 comments:
weapons for watercolors ... may it be so. sorry to hear you had one of those kinds of days. i will wake and whisper a prayer for you in the morning ... that you will be able to try again. glad we can be in contact ... go blogger.com. actually, i believe you are the person that first told me about blogger.com, by the way ... so i need to thank YOU for helping me find the blogging world which I enjoy so much!!!
cyberhugs (not nearly as good as the originals)!
Pamela, don't you just love Managua? You just never know who you'll run into at 'On the Slow.' And I have to concur...the other night I went to the one at the corner in Linda Vista, waited in a huge long line to buy a few water bottles (you know, the ones they have chained outside?), only to have the guy tell me cheerfully that they'd lost the key and couldn't unlock the bottles for me. :-) I had to visit 7 gasolineras before I finally found the bottles I needed. :-)
As for your appliances, sorry to hear about the flaming hair adventures. Glad you weren't hurt in the shower (of sparks).
-Alan
Amen, Pamela! And please add Salvador to your prayer list. His health is very fragile. Un abrazo,
Kim
I really like the watercolor line, too.
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