Monday, April 23, 2012
Song of the Day: Tres Veces Mojado - A Wetback Three Times Over
Lyrics, with my translation:
Cuando me vine de mi tierra El Salvador
(When I came from my country El Salvador)
Con la intención de llegar a Estados Unidos
(With the intention of going to the United States)
Sabía que necesitaría más que valor
(I knew that I would need more than courage)
Sabía que a lo mejor quedaba en el camino
(I knew some of the best fall along the way)
Tres fronteras las que tuve que cruzar
([There are] three borders I had to cross)
Por tres países anduve indocumentado
(Through three countries I walked undocumented)
Tres veces tuve yo la vida que arriesgar
(Three times I took my life into my hands)
Por eso dicen que soy tres veces mojado
(Because of this they say that I am a wetback three times over)
En Guatemala y México cuando cruce
(In Guatemala and Mexico when I crossed)
Dos veces me salve me hicieran prisonero
(Twice I was saved, they took me prisoner)
El mismo idioma y el color les reflectioné
(I have the same language and color as they do)
Como es posible que me llamen extranjero
(How can they call me a foreigner?)
---
Spoken:
En Centroamérica dado su situación
(In Central America there exists a situation)
Tanto política como económicamente
(As much plitical as economic)
Ya para muchos no hay otra solución
(There are many who have no other option)
Que abandonar su patria tal vez para .
(But to leave their countries, sometimes forever.)
El mexicano da 2 pasos y ahí esta
(A Mexican takes two steps, and there they are)
Hoy lo echan y al siguiente día está de regreso.
(Today they expell him, and the next day he's back..)
Es un lujo que no me puedo dar
(That's a luxury I do not have)
Sin que me maten o que me lleven preso...
(Without being killed or taken prisoner..)
---
Es lindo México pero cuanto sufrí
(Mexico is beautifiul, but how much have I suffered)
Atravesarlo sin papeles es muy duro
(To cross it withhout papers is very hard)
Los 5 mil kilómetros que recorrí
(5 thousand kilometers I have crossed)
Puedo decir que los recuerdo uno por uno.
(I can say that I remember every single one.)
Por Arizona me dijeron cruzaras
(They told me to cross in Arizona)
Y que me aviente por el medio del desierto..
(And then they abandoned me in the middle of the desert..)
Por suerte un mexicano al que llamaban Juan
(Luckily a Mexican named Juan)
Me dio la mano que si no estuviera muerto.
(Gave me a hand, so I am not dead.)
Ahora que al fin logre la legalización
(Now at last I seek legal status)
Lo que sufrí lo he recuperado con creces..
(I have recovered from all that I suffered in my crossings..)
A los mojados les dedico mi canción
(To all the wetbacks dedicate my song)
Y los que igual que yo son mojados tres veces..
(To those who like me are betbacks three times over..)
---
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Song of the Day: Jaded Lover, Chuck Pyle..
This one's of course for Annie Paradis.. As it shall always be for me.
Lyrics (variation off the version above, this being the way I sing it):
Now, it won't be but a week or two,
You'll be wantin' someone new lovin' you.
It's somethin' you've done a hundred times before.
Can't see you I been spreadin' myself thin too (in two)?
It's a lonely phase we've been goin' through..
Don't get up, I'll find my own way to the door.
Ah, I can see you are an angel whose wings just won't unfold,
Tune up your harp, polish your old halo..
'Cause the only kind of man that you've ever wanted,
Is the one that you knew you'd never hold very long,.
Now you're sittin' there cryin' like I'm the first one to go.
You may have thirty lovers behind you,
An' I may feel you but sure can't find you..
Seems you'd have found your own self by now.
But some nights those old lovers' tears come back,
Faces in your dreams, fingers in your back..
Echoes of the memories for cryin' out loud.
Ah, I see you are an angel whose wings just won't unfold,
Tune up your harp, polish your old halo..
'Cause the only kind of man that you've ever wanted,
Is the one that you knew you'd never hold very long,.
Now you're sittin' there cryin' like I'm the first one to go.
Ah, what a beautiful sight you are in your sleep,
I'll be leaving 'cause believing gets me in too deep.
That's easy enough for a man to say..
But we'd never agree if we talked all night..
Things get so heavy, I'm traveling light..
Goodbye my jaded lover, my undercover queen for a day.
Ah, I can see you are an angel whose wings just won't unfold,
Tune up your harp, polish your old halo..
'Cause the only kind of man that you've ever wanted,
Is the one that you knew you'd never hold very long,.
Now you're sittin' there cryin' like I'm the first one to go..
Think about it darlin'..
---
Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala
Lyrics (variation off the version above, this being the way I sing it):
Now, it won't be but a week or two,
You'll be wantin' someone new lovin' you.
It's somethin' you've done a hundred times before.
Can't see you I been spreadin' myself thin too (in two)?
It's a lonely phase we've been goin' through..
Don't get up, I'll find my own way to the door.
Ah, I can see you are an angel whose wings just won't unfold,
Tune up your harp, polish your old halo..
'Cause the only kind of man that you've ever wanted,
Is the one that you knew you'd never hold very long,.
Now you're sittin' there cryin' like I'm the first one to go.
You may have thirty lovers behind you,
An' I may feel you but sure can't find you..
Seems you'd have found your own self by now.
But some nights those old lovers' tears come back,
Faces in your dreams, fingers in your back..
Echoes of the memories for cryin' out loud.
Ah, I see you are an angel whose wings just won't unfold,
Tune up your harp, polish your old halo..
'Cause the only kind of man that you've ever wanted,
Is the one that you knew you'd never hold very long,.
Now you're sittin' there cryin' like I'm the first one to go.
Ah, what a beautiful sight you are in your sleep,
I'll be leaving 'cause believing gets me in too deep.
That's easy enough for a man to say..
But we'd never agree if we talked all night..
Things get so heavy, I'm traveling light..
Goodbye my jaded lover, my undercover queen for a day.
Ah, I can see you are an angel whose wings just won't unfold,
Tune up your harp, polish your old halo..
'Cause the only kind of man that you've ever wanted,
Is the one that you knew you'd never hold very long,.
Now you're sittin' there cryin' like I'm the first one to go..
Think about it darlin'..
---
Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Missionaries of Charity, Antigua Guatemala, April, 2012
This is not that great of an image. Those nuns are amazingly spry and move extremely quickly, and my paltry skills in the moment failed me. The fact that I saw them at all (about a dozen of them all together, I really dropped the ball capturing that moment) nevertheless pleases me, and so I share his image with you.
The lack of recent posts is a breach of my commitment, here. I've meant to post daily. But I've been wrapped up in Spanish and not bringing my camera along as I ought these past four or five days, and too distracted by other things to write much. This wretched scandalous failure I heretofore vow to redress, my public. I recommence with this here blog tomorrow, with renewed vigor..
---
Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala
Friday, April 13, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Further Thoughts on Humility & Knowledge
But let the Spirit of all lies with works of dazzling magic blind you. Then absolutely mine, I'll have and bind you.
- The Devil, Goethe's Faust
Gnosticism is the predominate heresy of our age. Gnosticism is belief in salvation by knowledge, belief in the (eventual) supremacy of the intellect over all. Essentially, belief in salvation through power. "Knowledge is power."
Gnosis is derived from the Greek for knowledge, just as science is derived from the Latin for the same. The conciet of the gnostic is that the spiritual (as with everything else) can be reduced to a science, that by understanding one can control things spiritual. Just as one can control the material, the physical through knowledge, one can also control the metaphysical by way of knowledge. Astrology births astronomy, alchemy births chemistry, both birth physics. Technology is as magic. We can be become like gods through knowledge. This is the Fall.
Christianity, in contrast is in this sense a practical agnosticism. We know nothing that can save us. Reality is ultimately mysterious, infinite when we are finite. We can never completely control it, which is to say never control reality's Creator, he who is the source of all that is. He is utterly ineffable, beyond all human power to control or even ultimately understand. The universe gives a hint of his transcendence, enough to inspire awe.
Thus just as we did not and cannot create ourselves, we cannot sustain or save ourselves. It is embrace of this abject need for the Other that saves. Salvation is love of him, and therefore love is the only thing we ultimately need. Again, salvation is through love and the humility and trust (faith) that love engenders. It is in our dependence, weakness, and ignorance that we are saved. It is not in pride, but humility that we are gathered in. "For God is love." Thanks be God forever.
Therefore, it is not knowledge as power that saves, but realtionship in the Divine Trinity, whose energies are grace born of love. And while love is animated by certain knowledge, understanding, it is not of the intellect. Rather, it is of the heart.
So it is then that the smallest shattered, diseased retard with a heart consumed with love is infinitely greater than the futile pride of all hell unbound.
My friend Dale is far greater than satan.
I.H.S.V.
A.M.D.G.
---
Monday, April 9, 2012
A Song for Easter Monday: Advent of Ascension & Whitsuntide
Forty days of fasting past, forty days gladness yet come..
Psalm 40
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.
2 He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.
3 And he hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God: many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.
4 Blessed is that man that maketh the LORD his trust, and respecteth not the proud, nor such as turn aside to lies.
5 Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered.
6 Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened: burnt offering and sin offering hast thou not required.
7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,
8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
9 I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: lo, I have not refrained my lips, O LORD, thou knowest.
10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart; I have declared thy faithfulness and thy salvation: I have not concealed thy lovingkindness and thy truth from the great congregation.
11 Withhold not thou thy tender mercies from me, O LORD: let thy lovingkindness and thy truth continually preserve me.
12 For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me.
13 Be pleased, O LORD, to deliver me: O LORD, make haste to help me.
14 Let them be ashamed and confounded together that seek after my soul to destroy it; let them be driven backward and put to shame that wish me evil.
15 Let them be desolate for a reward of their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
16 Let all those that seek thee rejoice and be glad in thee: let such as love thy salvation say continually, The LORD be magnified.
17 But I am poor and needy; yet the Lord thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God.
---
Location:8 Calle Oriente,Antigua Guatemala,Guatemala
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)