Milonga de contrapunto

Milonga, 'shed' flower,
faithful bride of the 'payador',
allow this singer
to get close to your 'skirt'.
I'm just any troubadour
and I must ask you when singing
to try to improvise
with your neat reasons,
to forget other songs
that I also knew how to sing.
I was born on this land;
there is no other Homeland for me;
on this land I grew up
like my father and my grandfather.
But today we are in mourning,
milonga, and even the wildest 'colt'
when seeing the pain of others
'softens' even if just for a moment:
for me there is no greater suffering than ours.
I wonder if it's true
that we are all equal,
seeing 'the easterners'
exchanging dead for dead.
For me there is no greater 'wrong'
than the cunning of the 'boss':
this one is bad, that one is worse
and that one is completely good...
the thing is to find a way to separate us better.
There is one thing evident
and it must be said as well:
that the one in charge knows well
how to deceive people.
Whoever judges me imprudent
for talking about these 'issues',
should analyze the reasons
that the singer will give him;
if I live off my throat,
I also live in my songs.
The hand must not be hidden
in main matters;
'an easterner' among 'easterners',
I am also a citizen.
If I owe myself to my brothers
I also owe myself
and I think it is not the same
the doubt as the patience:
if violence hurts me
what hurts me more is the 'Pachequismo'.
If I am wrong
let the people tell me;
we have seen the President
speak on television.
I saw him on one occasion,
almost dawn;
he didn't say anything about the people;
he said there were 'a few crazy ones'
who are bad but few,
and 'they have it in for him'.
He has never spoken about us,
only about the 'subversion';
they say nothing about the laborer,
not even about the 'sharecropper';
he thinks that with the photo
published in the newspapers
he scares the adversaries,
the worker, the student,
that people are ignorant
and that he is a visionary.
While the fields 'expand'
he keeps 'standing his ground',
violating rights
and hiring bodyguards.
If the one who has to 'play it'
doesn't like Pachequismo,
the price of meat for tourism increases
to five hundred pesos
and maybe that's why
a dollar is worth the same.
No one can 'speculate'
except the oligarchs;
they fatten their coffers
and the people work.
They have forced us to hate
the living for the dead,
and although it is very sad it is very true:
while hospitals are lacking,
in 'Suarez's mansion'
there is a pool and a helipad.
Those of us who say he lies,
seeing that he has lied to us,
we are 'ill-born'
for the Mr. President.
Whoever is not consistent
with the reactionary Power,
has to 'play dumb'
or become complicit with him,
because by signing a paper
he can shut down the newspapers.
He says there are 'technical'
revolutions and truly,
but the University
owes him three billion.
And he says worse things
-you can't ask for more-:
the Government will choose
the best educator;
if he can be a teacher
Pacheco will say so.
With this 'communism'
and the 'housing issue',
he wants the People to learn
to always talk about the same.
But there is a deep abyss
between the rich and the worker;
the chicken and the weasel
do not share a coop.
If the dead do not complain
it's for a reason they died.
INTERRUPTS VOICE II: *
Allow me to interrupt
your 'dignified' interpretation,
as a singer 'from the crowd'
I'm going to ask you a question:
the word that 'transpires'
allow me to insist,
for you it's a conquest
to go around singing these things,
but 'friend Zitarrosa'
you must be a communist.
Z: If you look at the 'median'
when the 'corn' is 'growing'
you can't see when
it will ripen.
For that same reason,
to call someone from the 'Frente'
a communist
is like calling them a friend;
you can't see the belly button
of those who lack 'sight'.
VOICE II: So you are from the 'Broad Front'
-you should have told me before-;
the thing is 'to endure'
as Hilario says here;
I would be your 'opponent'
because Mr. President,
always 'present'
and with a face of 'bad man',
they are going to give them so much 'stick'
the Front will end.
Z: What you say is true,
I know I'm not mistaken:
we have been under 'Immediate Security'
for several years now.
But even though I'm not old
enough to talk about the old Batlle,
allow me to try
a 'Batllist' question,
if instead of 'playing the artist'
you dare to walk the streets.
VOICE II: I was going to tell you why
-see that the man is 'very brave':
he won't 'play dumb'
to fight with you.
And I was also going to tell you,
if you think it's better
that he was a boxer
and has a 'strong punch';
while people scold him
things will go 'worse'.
Z: Maybe because he's a boxer
he governs on the 'counterattack'.
As long as the People endure
the rich live better.
I know that good man
has his own gym;
but you have to trot slowly
when the road is 'rough';
I never saw a square-jawed donkey
or a straight-haired black man.
VOICE II: I was going to ask you
if you can answer me
-because you won't deny me:
'God creates them and they come together'-
The 'estate' is all together
and that's what I explain to you;
that's why the judge blows the whistle
if a 'penalty' is committed:
you have to know how to govern
for the poor and the rich.
Z: I will answer you
in a simple way
-don't step on the 'grass'
or I'll get angry-:
you have to know how to separate
the sand from the pebbles.
I never saw a horse and a cow
pulling a cart together,
nor do I know a skinny 'estate'
that cannot be fattened.
VOICE II: You talk very well
but you won't tell me
that someone has to step up
to enforce order as well.
Because I know very well
that they don't want to work
and then they make all the 'unions' stop;
they make them have 'bad times',
they don't let him govern.
Z: Don't mix up the deck
if you don't mind.
For me the main thing
is the law of the one who works.
While they 'hold back' the poor
so they don't gather,
to those who have millions,
estates, banks, and newspapers,
even if they are 'adversaries'
they treat them like 'pigeons'.
VOICE II: The reasons you mention
don't seem enough to me.
And I would even 'bet my clothes'
on what I'm going to say.
For the one who knows how to fulfill
his duty wherever it fits,
even if the dogs bark at him
first comes the obligation;
and there is only one reason:
because the Homeland is the Mother.
Z: There are 'reasons', as you said,
for any 'arrangement';
I will give you in my own way
the reasons I deduce:
if the mother loves the child
she doesn't send him to the aunt;
she may not love me,
-even if I may love her-,
if she sends the police to make me
go see her.
VOICE II: If sending 'the police'
seems unfair to you,
they don't send them 'for fun'
if you deserved it;
and I tell you 'still',
in that of the 'military',
how can you explain to me,
since you are so 'civilian',
that the Broad Front candidate
is just a General.
Z: If I were president
just like I am a singer,
I would do everything best
to deliver to my people.
If the Front candidate
wears golden epaulettes,
it won't be a sin
-allow me to tell you-:
never forget ARTIGAS,
'the betrayed General'.

* The call VOICE II is in charge of Hilario Pérez.