Nicolás Guillén and the Switchblade
Wednesday, March 01, 2006
In 1967 my very Argentine but very communist aunt, Sara Lopes Colodrero de Irureta Goyena gave me three parting gifts when I left Buenos Aires. I shoved off in an ELMA (Empresa Líneas Marítimas Argentinas) Victory Ship called the Rio Aguapey. She told me that on board a long voyage, stopping at many Brazilian ports, anything could happen. "You will need this sevillana (switchblade) and so that it will open swiftly I am giving you this little bottle of whale oil. Whale oil is the best. And finally you will have plenty of time to read. I am giving you my copy of Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén's (1902-1989) Sóngoro Cosongo." I lost touch with Tia Sarita and the whale oil is long gone. But I still have the sevillana and I often read Tú no sabe inglé which is one of my favourite poems. I never had to use the switchblade on board the Rio Aguapey. I wasn't to know until 2000 that she had been built in North Vancouver.
Nicolás Guillén
Tú no
sabe inglé
Con
tanto inglé que tú sabía,
Bito
Manué,
con
tanto inglé, no sabe ahora
desí ye.
La
mericana te buca,
y tú le
tiene que huí:
tu inglé
era de etrái guan,
de etrái
guan y guan tu tri.
Bito
Manué, tú no sabe inglé,
tú no
sabe inglé,
tú no
sabe inglé.
No te
namore ma nunca.
Bito
Manué,
si no
sabe inglé,
si no
sabe inglé.
Nicolás
Guillén
(Motivos de son, 1930)
