Song of the Disappeared (Canción del desaparecido)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976

Several of my friends and comrades disappeared after being arrested. The dictatorship denied knowledge of their whereabouts but I knew they were lying.

Many of these people had been in prison with me in the dungeons of Villa Grimaldi. This song was sung in a cell of Valparaíso Jail with one comrade keeping watch next to the door in case a prison guard approached.


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Published on: 23 September 2015

I’ve begun this song
upon hearing, in fright, an ill-fated scream.
The cruel beast that I detest
lashes the mind of an innocent man.

He finds refuge in the world
of his violated silence
while the raging blow
perforates his love.

I myself have been a witness
of what I am talking about and I can prove it.
The same soldier who imprisoned me
had his fill of torturing him.

It will be plain for the world to see
when the killer smugly
tells us in a self-assured tone
“my hands are clean”.

They will publish in the paper
that this prisoner lives with the guerrilla.
Yesterday I saw him on the "grill"
his hands bound, his legs burned.

They will kill him without killing him
they will wipe him off this world.
The sad ones will bury him
the just will hate deeply.

Even if the body buried by dangerous claws
rests in the earth
no piercing spear
will wound the ideals of the libertarian.

He will remain in this world
lighting up the path.
The thoughts of the dying man
will not be forgotten, comrade.

The bitterness of this moment
became a wail in this throat.
Sadness is a plant
that grows in every man until it blossoms.

So this world blossoms
with the pain of the lost ones
with the fertile battles
for the disappeared.



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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