MARTIN FIERRO the GAUCHO * 1 Here I Come to Sing to the Beat Of
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MARTIN FIERRO THE GAUCHO * 1 Here I come to sing to the beat of my guitar: because a man who is kept from sleep by an uncommon sorrow comforts himself with singing, like a solitary bird. I beg the saints in heaven to help my thoughts: I beg them here and now as I start to sing my story that they refresh my memory and make my understanding clear. Come, saints with your miracles, come all of you to my aid, because my tongue is twisting and my sight growing dim— I beg my God to help me at this hard time. I have seen many singers whose fame was well won, and after they've achieved it they can't keep it up -- it's as if they'd tired in the trial runs* without ever starting the race. But where another criollo* goes Martin Fierro will go too: there's nothing sets him back, even ghosts don't scare him -- and since everybody sings I want to sing also. Singing I'll die, singing they'll bury me, and singing I'll arrive at the Eternal Father's feet – out of my mother's womb I came into this world to sing. Let me not he tongue-tied nor words fail me: singing carves my fame, and once I set myself to sing they'll find me singing, even though the earth should open up. I'll sit down in a hollow to sing a story -- I make the grass-blades shiver as if it was a wind that blew: my thoughts go playing there with all the cards in the pack.* I'm no educated singer, but if I start to sing there's nothing to make me stop and I'll grow old singing -- the verses go spouting from me like water from a spring. With the guitar in my hand even flies don't come near me: no one sets his foot on me, and when I sing full from my heart I make the top string moan and the low string cry. I'm the bull in my own herd and a braver bull in the next one; I always thought I was pretty good, and if anyone else wants to try me let them come out and sing and we'll see who comes off worst. I don't move off the track even though they're out cutting throats:* with the soft, I am soft, and I am hard with the hard, and in a time of peril, no one has seen me hesitate. In danger -- by Christ! my heart swells wide: since the whole earth's a battlefield and no one need be surprised at that, anyone who holds himself a man stands his ground, no matter where. I am a gaucho, and take this from me as my tongue explains it to you: for me the earth is a small place and could be bigger yet -- the snake does not bite me nor the sun burn my brow. I was born as a fish is born at the bottom of the sea; no one can take from me what I was given by God -- what I brought into the world I shall take from the world with me. It is my glory to live as free as a bird in the sky: I make no nest on this ground where there's so much to be suffered, and no one follows me when I take to flight again. In love I have no one to come to me with quarrels: like those beautiful birds that go hopping from branch to branch I make my bed in the clover and the stars cover me. And whoever may be listening to the tale of my sorrows – know that I never fight nor kill except when it has to be done, and that only injustice threw me into so much adversity. And listen to the story told by a gaucho who's hunted by the law; who's been a father and husband hard-working and willing -- and in spite of that, people take him to be a criminal. NOTES to I.1. TITLE] Gaucho] Historically, as a social class, gaucho means the countrymen who were born and lived on the pampa plain, originally descendents of Spanish settlers with the more approachable of the native Indians from the north of the country. In earlier times they lived off the herds of wild cattle and horses introduced by the settlers, selling hides etc.; later as the land became more controlled, by working on the estancias (ranches). Gaucho in common speech is more a description of the characteristics evolved from this way of life: horsemanship and skill in dealing with cattle, courage and total self-reliance in their isolated primitive life. As fighters the gauchos were typically fierce, following their own laws of honour and chosen leaders; hence they were a considerable force during the nineteenth-century struggles for power in the land – the dictatorship of Rosas (1835-52) was founded on their loyalty to him. To city people gaucho was often a synonym for barbarism, but with time the less violent aspects of gauchos prevailed in popular imagination, and by extension gaucho comes to be a description of anything strong and simple, well-done or well-made. A gauchada in modern Argentine slang means the action of a friend, doing a favour. There are diverse theories of the origin of the name; one being from guacho, orphan (see note to I.11.7). I.1.4] trial runs] Local horse-racing was a big event in gaucho life (see II.11). There may also be a reference here to earlier writers on "gaucho" themes who were disheartened by the disapproval of literary circles in the city. I.1.5] criollo ("criOZHo")] native Spanish-American. It comes to mean true countryman, as opposed to immigrants (gringos) and Europeanised city-men. (See I/12/12, II/12/18 etc) I.1.8] cards in the pack] Literally "Coins, Cups, and Clubs" (suits from the originally European card pack). I.1.12] cutting throats] Prisoners and wounded were commonly killed off after a battle. Throat-cutting was the preferred method with gauchos as with Indians. There is a horrifying account of this in W.H.Hudson's Far Away and Long Ago (chapter 8). (See also I.3.54) 2 No one speak of sorrows to me because I live sorrowing; and nobody should give himself airs even though he's got a foot in the stirrup -- even the gaucho with most sense often finds himself left on foot. You gather experience in life, enough to lend and give away, if you have to go through with it between tears and suffering – because nothing teaches you so much as to suffer and cry. Man comes blind into the world with hope tugging him on, and within a few steps, misfortunes have caught him and beat him down.... La pucha --* the hard lessons Time with its changes brings! I have known this land when the working-man lived in it and had his little cabin and his children and his wife... It was a delight to see the way he spent his days. Then... when the morning star was shining in the blessed sky, and the crowing of the cocks told us that day was near, a gaucho would make his way to the kitchen... it was a joy. And sitting beside the fire waiting for day to come, he'd suck at the bitter mate* till he was glowing warm, while his girl was s1eeping tucked up in his poncho.* And just as soon as the dawn started to turn red, and the birds to sing and the hens come down off their perch, it was time to get going, each man to his work. One would be tying on his spurs, someone else go out singing; one choose a supple sheepskin, one a lasso, someone else a whip – and the whinneying horses calling them from the hitching rail. The one whose job was horse-breaking* headed for the corral, where the beast was waiting, snorting fit to burst – wild and wicked as they come* and tearing itself to bits. And there the skilful gaucho, soon as he'd got a rein on the colt, would settle the leathers on his back and mount him straight away... A man shows, in this life, the craft God gave to him. And plunging around the clearing, the brute would tear itself up while the man was playing him with the round spurs, on his shoulders and he'd rush out squirming with the leathers squeaking loud. Ah, what times they were! you felt proud to see how a man could ride. When a gaucho really knew his job, even if the colt went right over backward, not one of them wouldn't land on his feet with the halter-rein in his hand. And while some were breaking-in, others went out on the land and rounded up the cattle and got together the horse-herds – and like that, without noticing, they'd pass the day, enjoying themselves. And as night fell, you'd see them together again in the kitchen, with the fire well alight and a hundred things to talk over – they'd be happy, chatting together till after the evening meal. And with your belly well filled it was a fine thing to go to sleep the way things should be, in the arms of love – and so to next day, to begin the work from the day before.