SocialistStories حكايات اشتراكية

I'm a Lost Cause
by Mario Benedetti

An astute critic finally revealed
(I knew they'd find out someday)
that I'm partial in my fiction
and he urges me tangentially
to become neutral
like any self-respecting intellectual

I think he's right

I'm partial
of this there can be no doubt
moreover I'd say I'm hopelessly partial
a lost cause in the end
since no matter how hard I try
I'll never be able to be neutral

in various countries on this continent
distinguished specialists
have done the possible and the impossible

Risk Analysis
by Mario Benedetti

Every time a landowner
declares
they'll have to take
this property
over my dead body
he should keep in mind that
somebody just might
do it.

Liberation:

Risk Analysis - Mario Benedetti.pdf

Che 1997
by Mario Benedetti

They have covered him with posters / with placards
with voices on walls
with retroactive offenses
with honors that come too late

they have transformed him into a product
a trivial memory
a distant yesterday
a well-embalmed sense of rage

they have decided to use him as an epilogue
as the last gasp of useless innocence
as an aged archetype of a saint or satan

and perhaps they've discovered that the only way
to get rid of him
or let him fade away
is to suck the light out of him
make him into a marble

Ode to Pacification
by Mario Benedetti

I don't know how far the peacemakers will take their
metallic roar of peace
but there are certain insurance brokers who sell
policies against peacemaking
and there are those who'll seek the death penalty for
those who don't want to be pacified

when the peacemakers aim, they fire, of course to make peace
and sometimes they even make peace for two birds with one stone

clearly, there's always some fool who refuses to
be pacified behind his back
or some idiot who resists a gradual peace

Utopias
by Mario Benedetti

How can I believe / said the guy
that there are no utopias left

how can I believe
that hope is a memory
or pleasure just something sad

how can I believe / said the guy
that the universe is in ruins
even though it's true
or that death is silence
even though it's true

how can I believe
that the horizon is the border
that the sea is nobody
that the night is nothing

how can I believe / said the guy
that your body / girl
is nothing more than what I can touch
or that your love

This fascinating play (85pgs) by Mario Benedetti is about torture, and has found a lot of praise from comrades who went through the horrible ordeal of torture at the hands of the amerikkkan-trained security forces in South America. To introduce it, I think it would be best to put here the introduction which Benedetti wrote for this play:

Reality / News
by Mario Benedetti

For europeans
stalinism
was
a reality
while
for us
it was just
news
that's why we
never really understood it

on the other hand
for us
cuba and nicaragua
are basic
and fundamental
realities
while
for them
they're just
news
that's why they
never really understood them

Liberation:

Reality ; News - Mario Benedetti.pdf

Children (2001)
by Mario Benedetti

In the world there is no abundance of those who kill
so mechanically and so coolly
with the good aim and useless hatred
of American children
that tribe of angels that proliferates
in the garbage bin of democracy

these children that have aged from being so vile
play in their workshop of spilled blood
they don't know how to cry or run barefoot
their burning hearts push them
to kill and kill like grown-ups
without knowing why they do it

and sometimes the birds ask them
why they do away with other children

Enjoy this very short story by socialist Mario Benedetti:

Completely Absentminded

This is one of the most beautiful poems I have ever read, although I haven't read it in it's original language, Spanish. This poem was written by Uruguayan leftist writer and poet Mario Benedetti (1920-2009) and the translation is thanks to comrade Nabil 'Abdou who posted it on his blog when Benedetti recently died (17 May 2009). Enjoy!