Song for
REDEMPTIION by Fidel de Castro ceps and perception, and in love with Marcelina Arcu ego. For nights while the moon grew in size ERNARDO CARPIO died in the Bernardo would sit down on the bamboo middle of a song. floor strumming his guitar softly before The bullet opened a hole in his an oil lamp on the squat dining table. t.hroat, but to those who loved him, his .on the table before him was a piece of death is an indictment against demo- paper and a pencil borrowed from Terio cracy. , the j ue t eng collector. H e died the evening of the day TruPlucking the strings searching for the man, Attlee, and Stalin sat at a round right tune. Softly for the hesitant hearttable in Moscow to talk about controlling beat. And then warmly enflamed for the atomic bomb. the swift splendour that knows no time Bernardo Carpio died in a little barrio and waiting now: I love you, Marcelina, in Nueva Ecija wher e moonlight and the mOon and the plow are both for hangs like a banner under the eaves. us, and forever for our children the Where t he seed, at last, has found its dreams and the toil between the seedplace in soil and in men's hearts to unfold ling and the star. And the fevered finger wrote. The its miracle. The miracle, or rather a part of it, notes and the words and more. The penwas unfolding in BeTnardo's song when cil performed a blueprint for the summer a bullet hit his throat and stopped the and the future of love, for the querulous beautiful r evelation. The song was heart and the fire and the bells in the silenced in the middle of its direction blood. That was Bernardo Carpio's love song but the beginning and its implications that night, and when his voice vibrated were clearly defined. in the moonlight, the wind from the The music and the words died not on fields carried the notes clearly under the a note of triumph. The pitch was just beginning to rise. leaves, over the listening growth on negIt was an intelligent note, a little am- lected yards, into the friendly open winbitious perhaps, impassioned, but res- dows. And the people knew that Bernardo ponsible. Carpio, at last, had decided to ask MarThat wa s how the song died in the celina Arcuego to be his wife. middle of a night made for love. HEY all knew about the plans. The Bernar do Carpio's death-song was act ually a love song. And more. clean bamboo house by the stream with For he wa s t wenty-five years old, a a window to greet the sunrise and a papoet wit h a guitar, a soil tiller with bi- pag near the stairs for the tired worker
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