The taxi speeds down the highway
zig zagging to miss the potholes.
It slows as a horse and cart crosses,
followed by the owner's dog.
On the other carriageway people wait
hoping someone will give them a lift.
An old Cadillac smokes its way down the road.
In the town, buildings are like well-worn pairs of shoes –
they fit, still function but have seen better days.
But the people are well nourished, clothed and clean.
Smiles of genuine happiness are all around.
This is a country which lives to a different pulse -
Ché its heartbeat,
Fidel its lifeblood.
People are living the revolution where others have failed –
common wellbeing before personal gain,
society’s hallmark is equality and colour-blindness.
Educated and cultured, enjoyment is beyond the material.
Musical rhythms set the daily pace.
There is a determination to live and succeed despite hardship.
But is it only hardship when seen through Western eyes?
The freedom of spirit is to be admired.
But what does the future hold?
The greatest challenge is yet to come –
influx of other peoples from not so far away.
¡Cubana!
Cresento Cantata
per favoreper favore continua a
notara il mio amore
per ta.....
forse ogni giorno
staremo insieme.....
il desideriod di
amare.....
desiderio di essere
amati.....
Vvoglia di stare
insieme.....
insieme nell' amore!
C-he reads do re mi with regard,
H-aving felt the admiration;
E-ven if the tone is low
R-apture is felt in elation.
R-eading do re mi with regard, Che cheers up the listener;
Y-es, the first three tones are heard from the voice of the speaker.
D-o re mi of the diatonic scale
U-sually are used in solmization;
E-xciting practice has been done,
R-ehearsal is for preparation.
M-usical performance begins, opened by the break of dawn;
E-vening shadows disappear, as the twilight is gone.
R-ound of applause is given,
E-xtending the standing ovation;
G-reat sound fills the event
A-s Che enjoys the occasion.
D-ay twenty-sixth September, she wants to look forward;
O-pening her mouth and eyes, Che reads do re mi with regard.
Look at yourself in the mirror
the fading years
your hair changing to a dull grey
it was not the time nor the season
to try and piece it all together
the memories came like
fragments from some great
archaeological dig,
finding the spaces in between moments
to surface from the depths of your own insights
they leave you in a state of disbelief
wondering where the time goes
what strange visions they make of now
you crawl through the wreckage of your future
like some battered husband waiting for his bride
to finally come to her senses and leave you
but there is no one. so what is in an answer?
When great men die poets weep
Though all heroes die the same
Some losses cut yet deeper deep
For some carry a brighter flame.
That is you Che Guevarra, you
Are dead, but cannot die here,
The void yawns lovingly for you
The soldier is the one who care.
Fidel said, the great artist can die
But the art has an immortal will
That man has good discerning eye
His heart is a dream's great mill.
You are both artist and art, portrait
Of the people, and painter of want
Your action tells the depth of faith,
Your love brings fruit upon the plant.
Che, we miss your spontaniety's fire
We miss your mind growing a desert
With corn, your bravery and desire
For freedom where the masses hurt.
No man gives so fully self, or again
For the peasants care; you were all
The canvas from the mind could drain,
Our living legend in mural and wall.
I
I woke up this morning with tears in my eyes,
your face was in the morning paper;
they shot you dead like a dog,
hunted you out all day and night.
II
They said you'd always been a bad seed
and youths were dying because of you;
they said you're a criminal on the run
with a dirty face and shaggy head.
(Refrain)
But I know you better than they do,
you preached love to all the people;
you fought for them, young and old,
you lit up their nights with your heart.
III
And now as I see you lying dead,
it seems my dreams have vanished as well;
they can call you names, any names they want,
but I know there's only one like you,
there's only one like you,
there's only one Che Guevara.
(Repeat Refrain)
You lit up their nights with your heart,
you lit up their nights with your heart,
you lit up their nights with your heart.
Executed life
Sunglasses and little peaked caps
Mass burials for those chaps
Stands at the window
As letters arrive from widows
There relentlessly chased princes
Death in the empty school of one mans dreams
I rise to take the led like a man
Sit down !
I should have died on the battlefield
So i will take it where i stand .