I was talking with Leo G. about national differences in the use of abstract words like honor, love, or justice. We agreed that in the Hispanic world such words have often been used with less irony than elsewhere. It occurred to me that one could cite Jose Martí in support of this thesis. Martí became the poet and martyr of 19th-century Cuban independence. The text for the Cuban song known as Guantanamera, freely adapted from his versos sencillos, begins with the simplest attestation of non-irony and the simplest evocation of his country: “Yo soy un hombre sincero de donde crece la palma.” I am a sincere man from where the palm tree grows. The structure of the poem pairs each personal attestation with an equally simple evocation of his place, so that the singer of the place mirrors the place itself:
Con los pobres de la tierra Quiero yo mi suerte echar El arroyo de la sierra Me complace mas que el mar (With the poor of the earth I want to throw in my lot. The mountain brook Pleases me more than the sea.)
I cannot imagine a contemporaneous French or German poet attesting without irony that, “I am a good man”; but in the song text this attestation is as direct as the sunshine that irradiates the island without wintry darkness; he will not allow himself to be pushed into the obscurity of the traitor or exile:
Yo soy bueno y como bueno Moriré de cara al sol (I am a good man and as such will die with my face to the sun.)
However, through solidarity or friendship the insular hero even surpasses the indomitability of wild nature itself in the evolved verses of the song text:
Tiene el leopardo un abrigo En su monte seco y pardo Yo tengo más que el leopardo Porque tengo un buen amigo. (The leopard has its shelter In the mountain dry and brown. I have more than the leopard Because I have a true friend.)
The actual song text interprets the original inspiration of the poet. For his idealism and quest for martyrdom, we might call him naive, but Martí was ready, in fact, it seems eager, to die for his abstractions. That surely gives them some substance. Imagine someone entertaining notions of himself as the opposite of what the verses assert: I am dishonest, a coward who deserts the cause; I am on the side of the unjustly privileged of the earth; my life is pointless; I am alone without friends. It is not so difficult after all to share his wish for a meaningful death.
Signed,
Andrew (Weeks)
Normal Thoughts 