From Carlos Colón’s song cycle, Lament With Wings. This song cycle uses the poetry of Salvadorean poet Alfredo Espino (1900- 1928). This poem comes from a collection by Espino titled Jícaras Tristes.
Here are the words to the poem, and a line by line translation:
Dichosofuí (I-once-knew-joy)
Tu cántico en la calma del paisaje
Your song in the calmness of the landscape
Es un hondo suspiro que se aleja…
Is a deep sigh that fades away
Una queja con alas…una queja…
A lament with wings…a lament…
Que brota desde el alma del boscaje
That sprouts from the forest’s soul
¡Oh, pájaro! Tu música salvaje,
Oh, bird! Your wild music
En la mañana azul, cabe la vieja
In the blue morning, fits…
Habitación de bahareque y teja,
The old room of adobe and tile,
Me hizo oir tu tiernísimo lenguaje…
It made me listen (understand) your most tender language…
Pájaro triste, ¿qué hondo desencanto
Sad bird, what deep disappointment
te arranca esas estrofas de terneza? Que son dulce expresión de tu quebranto?
Plucks out these tender verses… That are (a) sweet expression of your brokenness?
This slideshow contains pictures of my hometown:
Here’s my friend Antonio Herrera, who survived the massacre of the Río Sumpul. He lives now in Dallas and is a fierce advocate of immigrant rights.
El Señor Herrera sends Wheaton students a greeting, and talks about his experience:
A few years ago I took a choir to El Salvador, and we shared music at Saint Oscar Romero’s crypt and the day of his beatification, the last step before he was proclaimed a saint.
(Song “Esto les digo” – This I tell you, where two or three are gathered…)
Carlos Colón 