no se olviden de mi bolígrafono

mario benedetti
14 septiembre 1920 - 17 mayo 2009

above foto:
benedetti at la universidad nacional autónoma de méxico
mexico city, 1988. (archivo la jornada)


cuando me entierren
por favor no se olviden
de mi bolígrafo

**

when you bury me
please don't forget
my ballpoint pen

: mario benedetti


oh, we lost a great poet! mario benedetti, militant & writer, co-founder of the political wing of the tupamaros in uruguay was mourned yesterday in a funeral procession that drew thousands of people in montevideo. benedetti was exiled from uruguay and then argentina, away from his compañera and family, starting in 1973 and lasting for 12 years. he sent poems from his exile as weapons, to be used in the fights against the oligarchies and the dictatorships; daniel viglietti and joan manuel serrat set them to music and countless others applied them to memory. his poems chronicle working class life, celebrate love & resistance...


from te quiero :

...

tus ojos son mi conjuro
contra la mala jornada
te quiero por tu mirada
que mira y siembra futuro

tu boca que es tuya y mía
tu boca no se equivoca
te quiero porque tu boca
sabe gritar rebeldía

...

te quiero en mi paraíso
es decir que en mi país
la gente vive feliz
aunque no tenga permiso

si te quiero es porque sos
mi amor mi cómplice y todo
y en la calle codo a codo
somos mucho mas que dos

**

your eyes are my lucky charm
against daily misfortune
i adore you for your gaze
that looks to and sows the future

your mouth that is yours and mine
that does not equivocate
i adore you because your mouth
knows how to shout rebellion

...

i adore you in my paradise
which is to say in my country
where people live happily
even though they don’t have permission

if i adore you it is because you are
my love my accomplice and everything
and in the street, arm in arm
we are so much more than two


and here is mario benedetti reading his poem, desaparecidos (the disappeared):



¡¡¡que viva mario benedetti!!!