Salvador Espriu
The Bull-Hide
XLVI
Sometimes
One man must die for a people,
But never a people
For one man:
Always remember this, Sfarad.
Let dialogue follow freely from point to point
And try to understand, to appreciate
Your sons’ speech and their thoughts, different from your own.
Let rain fall in the fields, little by little,
And let the air move like an extended hand,
Gentle and kind, over the broad fields.
Let Sfarad live for all eternity
In order, in peace, in labor,
In noble and difficult
Freedom.
Translated by Burton Raffel
Salvador Espriu, The Bull-Hide. Vermont: Malboro, 1987, p. 56.