Translated by J.A. Sierra
When I see and touch myself,
I, Juan with Nothing only
yesterday,
and Juan with Everything today,
and today with everything,
I turn my eyes and look,
I see and touch myself,
and ask myself, how
this could have been.
I have, let's see,
I have the pleasure of going about my
country,
owner of all there is in it,
looking closely at what
I did
not or could not have before.
I can say cane,
I can say mountain,
I
can say city,
say army,
now forever mine and yours, ours,
and the vast
splendor of
the sunbeam, star, flower.
I have, let's see,
I have the pleasure of going,
me, a farmer, a
worker, a simple man,
I have the pleasure of going
(just an
example)
to a bank and speak to the manager,
not in English,
not in
"Sir,"but in compañero as we say in Spanish.
I have, let's see,
that being Black
no one can stop meat the
door of a dance hall or bar.
Or even on the rug of a hotel
scream at me
that there are no rooms,
a small room and not a colossal one,
a tiny room
where I can rest.
I have, let's see,
that there are no rural police
to seize me
and lock me in a precinct jail,
or tear me from my land and cast me
in
the middle of the highway.
I have that having the land I have the sea,
no country clubs,
no
high life,
no tennis and no yachts,
but, from beach to beach and wave on
wave,
gigantic blue open democratic:
in short, the sea.
I have, let's see,
that I have learned to read,
to count,
I have that I have learned to write,
and to think,
and to laugh.
I
have
that now I have
a place to work
and earn
what I have to
eat.
I have, let's see,
I have what I had to have.
Read this poem in Spanish
A brief look at Nicolás Guillén
Contents: Before the Revolution
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