silvio y oda a mi generación
i’m in awe of young poets that write verse that can only be comprehended later in life.
I know it is an illusion: it is man who attributes meaning to symbols. It is us, as we grow wiser with time and experience, who expand the poem’s meaning and fill more of life’s crevices with its music.
It is not divine revelation bestowed on us through prophets… or is it?
How to explain this young man (almost a kid) singing such sobering lyrics. From the words I can deduce that he was 23 when he wrote the song. It’s 1970 and he would’ve loved to risk all his death back there in the past, or risk all his life in the future (porvenir) that he cannot reach.
Yo no reniego de lo que me toca
Yo no me arrepiento pues no tengo culpa
Pero hubiera querido poderme jugar
Toda la muerte allá, en el pasado
O toda la vida en el porvenir
Que no puedo alcanzar
Silvio Rodríguez was born in late 1946. The Cuban Revolution began in 1953 and lasted five years. He would’ve been six years old when it started. Too young to fight, hence “… pero hubiera querido poderme jugar toda la muerte allá en el pasado…”
