Cantos Cautivos
Reflections (Reflexiones)
- Music piece by:Sergio Vesely
- Testimony by:Sergio Vesely
- Experience in:
Prison forced me to think quite a lot about my political past and my total commitment to an ideological cause, and its consequences.
In this song (composed in the Puchuncaví Detention Camp and only sung for my friends and cellmates) I reflect on my role as a prisoner songwriter.
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Published on: 22 June 2015
what pains me most
is to gaze on a sad brother
without love and peace.
And my fleeting mind
like the flight of a sparrow
cries because it no longer flies
and has no consolation.
Who could give strength
to my voice that has no solution?
Who can make a statement
a vision for what is better?
The damaged tree suffers
and I suffer from my pain
the human tires not
he has a dry heart.
The bird is in a cage
the fish is in a net
an onlooker gazes out
but his eyes no longer see.
I think the human being
becomes used to the wall
forgot the dreams dreamed
forgot loving to love.
Where are thoughts born
where does reason die
that’s where dreams will unite
like glass tops.
To the lion by his growl
to the flower by its colour
the poet moulding his song
verse by verse.
Today the man sings to the woman
the servant sings to his master
Who understands what I say
and makes a fair distinction?
It is not the same a lover
as an engulfed labourer
although the song is the same
one is alive, the other not.
The time that comes and passes not
a dead shadow in a corner.
A singer alone with his song
a wheel falling off.
Nobody will tie your hands
nobody will breathe a proclamation
nobody violates your silence
no one refines their voice.
Related testimonies:
- The Black King (El rey negro) Sergio Vesely, Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975
One cold winter night of 1975, the small clinic of Melinka, in the Puchuncaví Detention Camp, became the setting for a touching story.
- National Anthem of Chile Boris Chornik Aberbuch, Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, March 1975
The Puchuncaví detention camp’s daily routine included mandatory participation in the ceremonies of raising and taking down the Chilean flag on the flagpole at the entrance to the camp.
- Dreams of my Imprisonment (Sueños de mi encierro) Mario Patricio Cordero Cedraschi, Cárcel de Valparaíso, Winter of 1975
I’d spent two years in prison and there was no end in sight for my time in jail. I observed during visiting hours that many prisoners had children, a wife, family.
- Ode to Joy (Himno a la alegría) Luis Madariaga, Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1974 - 1976
In prison, we would sing the 'Ode to Joy' when a comrade was released or sent to exile.
- To Sing by Improvising (Pa’ cantar de un improviso) Claudio Enrique Durán Pardo (Kila Chico), Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, June 1975
We made a Venezuelan cuatro from a large plank of wood attached to one of the walls of the "ranch" where we ate.
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