A Mis Amigos
Alberto Cortez
To My Friends
To my friends I owe tenderness
And words of encouragement and hugs
Sharing with all of them the bill
That life presents us, step by step
To my friends I owe patience
For tolerating my sharpest thorns
The outbursts of humor, negligence
Vanities, fears, and doubts
A fragile paper boat
Friendship sometimes seems
But it can never be defeated
By the most violent storm
Because that paper boat
Has a heart
Holding onto its helm
As captain and helmsman
To my friends I owe some annoyance
That unintentionally disturbed our harmony
We all know that it can't be a sin
To argue, at times, over trivial matters
To my friends I will leave when I die
My devotion in a guitar chord
And among the forgotten verses of a poem
My incorrigible poor soul of a cicada
A fragile paper boat
Friendship sometimes seems
But it can never be defeated
By the most violent storm
Because that paper boat
Has a heart
Holding onto its helm
As captain and helmsman
My friend, if this song, like the wind
Calls out to you wherever you are
You will be plural, as feeling demands
When it carries friends in the soul
