Guitar – a poem by Nicolás Guillén

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

The Cuban author Nicolás Guillén (1902-1989), one of the most famous writers in Latin America introduced the world to Afro-Cuban folklore. His poetry made him one of the greatest innovators in Latin American verse.

In the middle of the night the firm guitar waits, and then desperately wails in its profound wooden voice.

Its enticing feminine waist, upon which a whole nation sighs, pregnant with music, the guitar stretches its hard flesh.

Does the guitar burn alone? As the moon vanishes up in the sky, the guitar is set on fire, freed of the ball gown with its cumbersome long train.

The guitar leaves behind the drunkard in his car, the shadowy night club, freezing to death night after night.

The guitar lifts up its fine, universal, Cuban gaze, with no need of opium or pot or cocaine.

Let that old guitar return once more to punish with its music the friend who expects it because he refuses to abandon it!

Standing tall, never stooping, let it bring both laughter and tears and let her dig her dark purple nails into life itself.

Hey, guitar player, pick it up man, wipe the alcohol from your mouth and play your music upon that guitar, the entire song!

Play that song about mature love, play the entire song, the one about an open future, the entire song, with one foot up and the other on the ground, the entire song!

Hey, guitar player, pick it up man, wipe the alcohol from your mouth and play your music upon that guitar, the complete, entire song!

Translated by Rafael de Acha

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”