Mario Benedetti died eight hours before in Uruguay than in Spain and I learned the news when I woke up today, which made me kind of sad for the rest of the day. I discovered him at 18, and he was the first poet I’d ever read outside Literature class, the one that taught me that poetry didn’t need to feed on strange words or extraordinary events: he could send shivers down your spine by simply talking about a city garden. Also, his love poems made me think “well, that’s exactly what I want in a relationship”: in them, men and women are equals fighting together but not each other, fighting to make each other happy against their own human frailties. In fact, Tactic and strategy was the touchstone to decide whether I could go back with my boyfriend after our ehmmm, let’s not ramble please…
On the other hand, Benedetti was also important to me because he’s the poet of compromise. He was a very simple man (like the prototypical office worker of his poems) who got involved in political persecution in Uruguay during the unfortunate years of Latin American dictatorships sponsored by the USA (I’m talking about the 70s and 80s, in case some readers might wonder) and had to go through exile and the bitter certainty of what was happening to his folks. In any case, he never abandoned either the human lefts (as opposed to the human rights, which got all the lip-service) or his sense of humour (as you can see above and below).
Thank you Mario Orlando Hamlet Hardy Brenno (yes, he had five Christian names!) for 88 years of integrity and nearly as many of heartwarming poetry.
Here are two poems I got from the Internet. Hope you enjoy them.
TACTIC AND STRATEGY
My tactic is
Looking at you,
Learning how you are,
Loving you as you are,
My tactic is
Talking to you
And listening to you
To build with words
An indestructible bridge
My tactic is
Remaining in your memories
I don’t know how
Nor with which pretext
But remaining with you.
My tactic is
Being frank,
And knowing that you are frank,
And not selling each other
Simulations
So that between us
There is no curtain
Nor abyss.
My strategy is,
However,
Deeper and
Easier,
My strategy is
That one of these days
I don’t know how
Nor with which pretext
You finally
Need me.
DON’T SAVE YOURSELF
Don’t remain immobile
At the edge of the road
Don’t freeze the joy
Don’t love with reluctance
Don’t save yourself now
or ever
Don’t save yourself
Don’t fill with calm
Don’t reserve in the world
Only a secure place
Don’t let your eyelids fall
Heavily as judgments
Don’t speak without lips
Don’t sleep without sleepiness
Don’t imagine yourself without blood
Don’t judge yourself without time.
But if
in spite of everything
You can’t help it,
And you freeze the joy,
And you love with reluctance,
And you save yourself now,
And you fill with calm
And you reserve in the world
Only a calm place,
And you let fall your eyelids
Heavily as judgments,
And you speak without lips,
And you sleep without sleepiness,
And you imagine yourself without blood,
And you judge yourself without time,
And you remain immobile
At the edge of the road,
And you save yourself,
Then…
Don’t stay with me.
