Guantanamera (was: 50-60
benjami...@twty.chi.il.us
NE|>>Guantanamera is perhaps more of a revolutionary song. It is the old
NE|>>Spanish love song, Guantanamera, with new verses from a poem written by
NE|>>Jose Marti, a <Cuban?,Mexican?,??> revolutionary on the eve of his
executio
NE|>The burning question in my confuddled mind is: what does
NE|>"Guantanamera" mean? Or "guajira [sp?] Guantanamera," for that
NE|>matter? It's a beautiful word, at least.
Judge for yourself:
You soy un hombre sincero, de donde crece la palma
I am a truthful man from the land where the palms grow
Y antes de morirme quiero echar mis versos de alma
And before I die I want to share these poems of my soul
Mi verso es de un verde claro y de un carmin encendido
My poems are clear green, they are flaming crimson
Mi verso es un ciervo herido que busca en el monte amparo
My poems are a wounded fawn searching through the hills
Con loso pobres de la tierra quiero you me suerte echar
With the poor people of the earth I want to cast my lot
El arroyo de la sierra me complace mas que al mar
The coolness of the mountains pleases me more than the sea
Taken from Rise Up Singing [$15 + $2.50 shipping from Sing Out
Corporation, P.O. Box 5253, Bethlehem, PA 18015, (215) 865-5366)],
which attributes it to Jose Marti, a Cuban poet and "leader in
several uprisings against Spanish colonial rule until his death in
the insurrection of 1898", adapted by Julian Orban with music by
Jose Fernandez Dias (Joseito Fernandez), adapted by Pete Seeger
and Julian Orban.
There is no translation of the chorus:
Guantanamera, guajira, Guantanamera
but my Spanish-English paperback dictionary from high school days
notes "guajiro m. Indian of the Guajira peninsula (in Venesuela
and Colombia); Am. rustic, peasant." Take a look at a map and
you'll see the peninsula is the northernmost point in South
America.
Not a clue about Guantanamera, just Guantanamo.
---
ş SLMR 2.1a ş
benjami...@twty.chi.il.us
NE|>The burning question in my confuddled mind is: what does
NE|>"Guantanamera" mean? Or "guajira [sp?] Guantanamera," for that
NE|>matter? It's a beautiful word, at least.
I stopped looking too soon. In The Collected Reprints from Sing
Out! Volumes 1-6 1959-1964, the translation of Guantanamera as a
girl from Guantanamo is given. The note comments on the irony of
the fact that Guantanamo is now a US Naval station in Cuba (to
which add the irony of the fact that Haitian refugees that Clinton
said he would admit are being detained there, now being joined by
Cubans seeking to come to the US).