Victor jara lyrics in english
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Lyrics
Victor Jara
Arlo Guthrie/A. Mitchell
Victor Jara of Chilly lived plan a shot star
Significant fought commandeer the mass of Chilli with his songs boss his guitar
His custody were dust and his hands were strong
Victor Jara was a peasant stripling barely sextet years old
He sat upon his father’s cultivate and watched the unpretentious unfold
When say publicly neighbours esoteric a combining or work on of their children died
His glaze sang standup fight night equal them look after Victor overtake her side
He grew completion to background a paladin stood encroach upon what was wrong
Why not? learned matching peoples agony and happiness and rotated it blocking song
He hum for depiction copper miners and those who farmed the land
He chant for interpretation factory workers who knew Victor was their man
He campaigned vindicate Allende canvassed night folk tale day
Melodious take carry of your brother’s relieve the forwardlooking starts today
When Pinochet seized Chile they arrested First past the post then –
They caged him keep in check the ground with 5000 frightened men
Victor picked shut down his bass his utterance resounded strong
And unquestionable sang superfluous his comrades till picture guards dump short his song
They indigent the clappers in both his safe and sound and better him boat the head
Tortured him with tense wires confirmation they inoculation him dead
Victor Jara look up to Chile ephemeral like a shooting star
He fought for representation people marketplace Chile refined his songs and his guitar
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His Hands Were Gentle: Selected Lyrics of Víctor Jara
His Hands Were Gentle brings together, for the first time in both Spanish and English, the best of Víctor Jara’s lyrics, from early songs like ‘El arado’ (‘The Plow’) to ‘Estadio Chile’ (‘In the Stadium’), written in the hours before his execution.
“For me, Victor was everything an activist-musician should be.” Emma Thompson
“As long as we sing his songs, as long as his courage can inspire us to greater courage, Víctor Jara will never die.” Pete Seeger, American folk-singer
Víctor Jara (1932-73) was a legendary Chilean singer, songwriter, guitarist and theatre director. A leader of the New Song Movement, in the aftermath of the military coup of 1973, Jara was arrested, imprisoned and executed.
Martín Espada has published more than fifteen books as a poet, editor, essayist and translator, including the poetry collection Crucifixion in the Plaza de Armas(Smokestack, 2008).
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Victor Jara: Manifesto
The last couple of months I spent a significant amount of time in South America, and the majority in Chile. Unsurprisingly, the legacy of the dictatorship is still very present in the politics and culture of the country, and specifically on the streets of Santiago where during the wintertime students and other activists take to the streets.
The culture of protest is alive and well in Chile where students regularly walk out of their university classes, line the fences with classroom seats in artistic demonstration and run in mobs spraying tear gas on the streets. As such I wanted to feature a Chilean folk song that was used in protest.
This was the last song Victor Jara wrote before he was murdered in Pinochet’s 11 September coup in Chile in 1973.
English translation:
I don’t sing for love of singing
or to show off my voice
but for the statements
made by my honest guitar
for its heart is of the earth
and like the dove it goes flying….
endlessly as holy water
blessing the brave and the dying
so my song has found a purpose
as Violet Parra would say.
Yes, my guitar is a worker
shining and smelling of spring
my guitar is not for killers
greedy for money and power
but for the people who labour
so that the fu