HISTORIAS Manuel Espejo
Lluís Llach
Dear Lluís,
Years ago, in my youth, I held great admiration for you and was truly devoted to your music. Even now, your records continue to stir my emotions. I cherish memories of songs like Viatge a Itaca, L'estaca, Campanades a morts, Venim del nord, and many others. I recall:
We come from the north / We come from the south / From inland / From overseas / And no flag leads us / Which isn’t called freedom / The freedom of a full life / That is freedom for my comrades / And we want to live for walking / And we want to walk to live / And we don’t believe in boundaries / If there is a comrade behind / With their hands outstretched / To be liberated / And we don’t know triumphant hymns / Nor mark the step of the winner / Because if the fight is bloody / It will be a shame the blood / The chains will be useless / Of a power always enslaving / When is life itself / That forces us to every step.
Who could ever forget L'Estaca when they were once a passionate young person with vitality coursing through their veins?
Grandpa Siset once told me / By the door of the house, / While we were about the dawn hour / And we were seeing the carts pass by / Siset, can’t you see the wooden stake / Where we are all tied to? / If we can't get rid of it / We will never be able to walk! / If we tug together, it will fall / And it can't last long / Sure it falls / It should be pretty eaten away / If you pull it hard out there / And I pull him hard here / Sure it falls / And we will be able to free ourselves / But Siset, since long ago / My hands are weaker and weaker / And when the strength abandons me / The wooden stake is wider and bigger / I know for a fact that it is rotten / But Siset it weighs so much / That sometimes my strength forgets me.
And, most importantly, who isn't deeply moved when they listen to the verses and music ofViatge a Itaca?
I - When you initiate the journey for Ithaca, / You should pray for a long voyage, / Full of adventures, full of knowledge. / For you to discover many mornings / To enter a port that your eyes didn’t know / And go to cities to learn from the wisest people. / Always keep in mind the idea of Ithaca. / You should get there, it's your fate / But do not force the crossing at all / It is preferable that the journey lasts many years / That you are old when you anchor the island / Rich in everything you have earned along the way / Without waiting for it to give you more riches / Ithaca has given you this beautiful voyage / Without Ithaca you wouldn’t have initiated the path / And if you find Ithaca poor, it's not Ithaca / The one has deceived you. Wise like you are now / You will understand what Ithaca means.
II - Further, you must go further / Of the fallen trees that now imprison you / And when you have won them / Keep deeply in mind not to stop / Further, always go further / Further from the chains that today don’t allow you to move / And when you will be liberated / Start new steps again / Further, always much further / Further from tomorrow which is now approaching / And when you think you have arrived / Learn to find new paths.
III - May have a nice journey the warriors / Who are faithful to their people / May the God of winds favour / The sails of their ship / And despite their old combat / May they have pleasure from the most loving bodies / May they fill networks with beloved stars / With a lot of luck, and a lot of knowledge / May have a nice journey the warriors / If they are faithful to their people / May the sails of their ship / Be favoured by the God of the winds / And despite their old combat / Love fills their generous body / May they find the ways for their old longings.
Now that I've grown into a mature man, and you've aged significantly, your actions contradict the purity of your earlier words. You align yourself with a cause that seeks to erect barriers instead of dismantling them. Additionally, some of your comrades are involved in acts of terrorism, resulting in the loss of innocent lives. You've become a part of the problem rather than the solution. Whose cause do you truly serve?
As those of us hailing from the north and the south, from the inland and overseas, continue our fight for the cause of freedom, we can't help but lament your alignment with the opposing side. Your songs will forever remain our anthem, but it's disheartening to see you now associated with the enemies of freedom and democracy.