EPITAPH FOR JOAQUÍN PASOS

EPITAPH FOR JOAQUÍN PASOS

He used to walk here, along these streets,
without job or position and without a peso.
Only poets, prostitutes, and bums
knew his verses.
He was never abroad.
He was in prison.
Now he’s dead.
He hasn’t any monument . . .
But
remember him when you have concrete bridges,
big turbines, tractors, silver-plated barns,
good governments.
Because in his poems he purified the language of his people,
in which one day trade agreements will be written,
the Constitution, the love letters,
and the decrees.

ERNESTO CARDENAL, Nicaragua (1925 – 2020)
Translation Germain Droogenbroodt – Stanley Barkan

EPITAFIO PARA JOAQUÍN PASOS