challengeopf.blogg.se - The Book of Embraces by Eduardo Galeano

Dolphin strandings and rescue caught on viral video.

Los nadies, que cuestan menos que la bala que los mata. Que no figuran en la historia universal, sino en la crónica roja de la prensa local. Que no son seres humanos, sino recursos humanos. Que no profesan religiones, sino supersticiones. Los nadies: los hijos de nadie, los dueños de nada. Los nadies: los ningunos, los niguneados, corriendo la liebre, muriendo la vida, jodidos, rejodidos. Sueñan las pulgas con comprarse un perro y sueñan los nadies con salir de pobres, que algún mágico día llueva de pronto la buena suerte, que llueva a cántaros la buena suerte pero la buena suerte no llueve ayer, ni hoy, ni mañana, ni nunca, ni en llovizna cae del cielo la buena suerte, por mucho que los nadies la llamen y aunque les pique la mano izquierda, o se levanten con el pie derecho, o empiecen el año cambiando de escoba.

The nobodies, who are not worth the bullet that kills them. Who do not appear in the history of the world, but in the police blotter of the local paper. Who are not human beings, but human resources. Who don’t have religions, but superstitions. The nobodies: the no ones, the nobodied, running like rabbits, dying through life, screwed every which way. The nobodies: nobody’s children, owners of nothing. Good luck doesn’t even fall in a fine drizzle, no matter how hard the nobodies summon it, even if their left hand is tickling, or if they begin the new day with their right foot, or start the new year with a change of brooms. But good luck doesn’t rain down yesterday, today, tomorrow, or ever. ~ Diana Rico The Nobodiesįleas dream of buying themselves a dog, and nobodies dream of escaping poverty: that one magical day good luck will suddenly rain down on them–will rain down in buckets.

Below is the English translation by Galeano’s longtime translator, Cedric Belfrage, followed by the original Spanish. Here is a video by Caleb González of a poem from “The Book of Embraces,” with music by the great Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucia. These days I am swooning over “The Book of Embraces” by the Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano (whose “Memory of Fire,” a trilogy poetically chronicling the history of Latin America, I earlier swallowed in great, swift gulps).