Staying with poetry, I received this from comrade Loam, a beautiful poem, born of the brutality of the Franco regime in 1938.
José Agustín Goytisolo. Born in Barcelona on 13 April 1928, his family was brutally shaken by the death of his mother (Julia Gay) in an aerial bombardment by Franco regime, in 1938. José Agustín was specially affected, and named his daughter after his lost mother. 'Words for Julia' is one of his best-known poems (sung by Paco Ibáñez -anarchist)
Here's the poem translated into English.
José Agustín Goytisolo
Words for Julia
You cannot turn back
because life's pushing you
like a never-ending howl.
My daughter, it's better to live
with the happiness of mankind,
than to cry before the blind wall.
You will feel cornered,
you will feel lost or lonely,
maybe you'll wish you hadn't been born.
I know very well they will tell you
that there is no object to life,
that it is an unfortunate affair.
Then always remember
what I wrote one day
thinking of you as I am now thinking.
A man alone, a woman,
taken like that, one by one,
are like dust, are nothing.
But when I talk to you,
when I write these words for you,
I also think of other people.
Your destiny is in others,
your future is your own life,
your dignity is that of everybody.
Others expect you to resist,
your happiness to help them,
your song among their songs.
Then always remember
what I wrote one day
thinking of you as I am now thinking.
Never give up or halt
by the road, never say
I can't take it any more and here I stop.
Life is beautiful, you will see
how in spite of the sorrows
you'll have love, you'll have friends.
For the rest there is no choice
and this world as it is
will be all your patrimony.
Forgive me, I do not know
what more to say, but you understand
that I am still on my way.
And always, always, remember
what I wrote one day
thinking of you like I am now thinking.
