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WEST INDIES LTD.
NICOLÁS GUILLÉN

I

West Indies! Coconuts, tobacco, brandy...
black-skinned folks with a smile always handy! Conservative and liberal too;
raise some cattle and cane for you.
Here some days there's cash to be had,
but most of the time you live pretty bad.¹
Here the sun fries everything:
your brain, the roses, birds that sing.
Policed by flashy suits of drill,
we walk about in loincloths still.
Simple and tender, we come from slaves
and from a multifaceted gang of knaves
that sailed in the name of the King with Columbus and,
thinking they were in the East,
these gentlemen called this place the Indies,
and started treating people like beasts.

We've got Chinese, white, black and mixed;
but remember that our colors are cheap, 
for after years of contracts and tricks 
nobody's purity runs very deep.
So there's no "stable tone" as you can see. (Step forward and speak if you don't agree.)

Now, we've got all this and politicoes too,
and speakers who cry, "I stand before you..."
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¹It's true that this is still a very docile people. Nonetheless, any day now, they'll spring up suddenly; they'll break loose anywhere with calloused hands- and it'll be like those city trees that tear up a whole sidewalk with a single growing root.
_________
Nicolás Guillén is Poet Laureate of Cuba. This poem has been translated from the Spanish for FREEDOMWAYS by David Arthur McMurray. It is the first English translation of this well-known piece.

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Transcription Notes:
---------- Reopened for Editing 2024-02-16 12:57:23