Silvio II

See first Silvio post for background

Of absence and of you



Now the only thing left is for me to regain the
lover's breath
To avoid maps, to keep to myself
to avoid certain streets,
to forget that a certain book was once mine
or to write a song

And tell you that everything's the same
the city, the friends, the sea
waiting, because of you,
waiting, because of you

I keep going to Tete's, week after week
you remember her place
Today she spoke of rifles dispatching dead men
I know she loves me
perhaps that's why
I sense you in her living room
even though you're not here now.
And you can feel it in our conversation
or maybe it's just that I have the impression
of absence and of you,
of absence and of you

I hope there's no disaster in the reasonable crime
of remembering
or in the inevitable flaw
of nostalgia for dumb little things
Like when I stepped on your feet
in the crowd
and we laughed and laughed and laughed,
late nights without going to sleep.
Yes, it's different without you.
Very different without you.

Ideas are bullets these days and I can't
wear flowers for you.
Today, I'd like to be older and wise
and to tell you
what I couldn't tell you here,
to speak as a tree,
shading you.
Like a book salvaged from the sea,
like a dead man that learns to kiss,
for you,
for you

Silvio

Silvio is a great lyricist, generally unknown in the US. Translations can't approximate his power, but they can try, in this and posts to come. He weaves politics, love, the mundane and the ideal - dissolving, rising above, sublimating any one thought, idea or ideology.

Today, my duty was



Here is a translation, open to constructive suggestions:

Today my duty was
to sing for my country
to raise the flag
to join the fray
today was a moment
rather optimistic
a rebirth
a conquering sun
but you've been missing for so many days
that I want to and can't rejoice
I think of your hair
crashing into my pillow
and I'm such that I can't fight another battle

Today, though I should
have sung with the chorus
I hide from the day
I whisper this alone
What am I doing so far away, justifying
this cruel trick of the senses?

Your delicate lips,
kissing mine,
conquer, own, don't relent
your body and my body
singing struggles
possessed sounds, feverish trembles

Today my duty was
to sing to the fatherland
to raise the flag
to join the fray
and I believe that, perhaps,
I've finally achieved it
dreaming your embrace
rushing to your side


He prefaces the song by saying, "I sung this in a Chilean prison, to a group of political prisoners."