The project is we translate this song, at least. After the song and its lyrics, I added a brief bio of Silvio's in English below, and a YouTube video so you can see... the audience perform!!! (you get goose bumps!)
Listen to the song...Ojalá que las hojas no te toquen el cuerpo cuando caigan
para que no las puedas convertir en cristal.
Ojalá que la lluvia deje de ser milagro que baja por tu cuerpo.
Ojalá que la luna pueda salir sin ti.
Ojalá que la tierra no te bese los pasos.
Ojalá se te acabé la mirada constante,
la palabra precisa, la sonrisa perfecta.
Ojalá pase algo que te borre de pronto:
una luz cegadora, un disparo de nieve.
Ojalá por lo menos que me lleve la muerte,
para no verte tanto, para no verte siempre
en todos los segundos, en todas las visiones:
ojalá que no pueda tocarte ni en canciones
Ojalá que la aurora no dé gritos que caigan en mi espalda.
Ojalá que tu nombre se le olvide a esa voz.
Ojalá las paredes no retengan tu ruido de camino cansado.
Ojalá que el deseo se vaya tras de ti,
a tu viejo gobierno de difuntos y flores.
Watch Silvio and the Audience Live!
Silvio Rodríguez: A Brief Biography in English
Fausto Tavárez - New York - 2000
How easy it would be to write one love song after the other. How easy it would be to go through life without leaving a trace. But Pablo Milanés wrote that "poor is the singer of our days/ that won’t risk his string/ for fear of his life." Silvio Rodríguez has taken this notion seriously, both personally and artistically. I wonder if he knew when he was writing his thousands of songs that he was affecting so many lives, that he was writing for the ages, that decades later some of us would be calling him the Maestro. I think he did. And he accepted this responsibility as only a man of his caliber could.
Silvio Rodríguez, along with Pablo Milanés and Noel Nicolá, were the founders of Nueva Trova Cubana (New Cuban Song), a musical movement that started in the 60’s after great success thought the rest of the continent and Spain. Nueva Trova (New Song), also known as Nueva Canción, started in Argentina with the great Atahualpa Yupanqui, spread to Chile with Violeta Parra and Victor Jara, and then moved to the rest of the countries. The movement reached Cuba in a very important part of its history. It came after the success of the Revolution of 1959, after which the Socialist government came into power. This Revolution was and still is a source of great inspiration for the Cuban troubadours.
The movement revolutionized Cuban music which up to that time was known for its rhythm. Nueva Trova put Cuban music in the map as a very social and intelligent one. After the 1981 release of Unicornio Silvio became an even bigger star all over Latin America. He participated in countless festivals, gave concerts, and collaborated with other troubadours of America. He has become an icon of Cuban culture.
It is hard to tell how Silvio's character was built. It is difficult to tell whether the it was all the result of his childhood under the Batista regime and the success of the Revolution, whether it was because of the literature he read, because of the voyage aboard the "Playa Girón," or because of the military service he provided as an adolescent. But the result is very gratifying. Mario Benedetti, one of the best Latin American writers, said that "for many reasons, and even without reasons, Silvio Rodríguez is a great singer. His only presence gave the Nueva Trova movement an indisputable prestige. Curiously, his voice is not warm and low, but acute, with an almost metallic timbre, which never the less, sounds very fragile. When you listen to him you start getting the feeling the his voice may just break at any moment, and that risk (which is not deliverate) is also part of his strange distinction."
Silvio Rodríguez Domínguez was born in San Antonio de Baños, Cuba in November 29, 1946. His parents, Dagoberto Rodríguez and Argelia Domínguez, worked in the tabaco industry. Silvio had taken piano lessons since he was seven, but a series of events would later make the guitar his companion for the rest of his career. At the age of 15 he joined the Cuban government effort in trying to rebuild Cuba culturally. He became part of the alphabetizing project which was one, if not the best, in the continent. He later started his military service in 1964. Some say that he got to the station with an old guitar which he still didn't know how to play efficiently. A fellow soldier taught him the rest of the way. It was during this time that the artistic side flourished. He started writing songs that he would sing to the other soldiers until eventually his presence in cultural events became an obligation. (In the song Hoy mi deber , this responsibility is noted.) He was in the military until 1967. It was then when he met Pablo Milanés and Noel Nicolá, the other great of Nueva Trova Cubana.
Silvio Rodríguez's most important distinction are his lyrics in the hundreds of songs he has written. From 1969 to 1970,when he went out to the sea with the Cuban Fishing Float on the "Playa Girón" ship, he wrote dozens of songs, including the one describing the ship and its crew. During this time he also wrote passionately about love, his Homeland, life, and death. His work ethics have never abandoned him for a second. He writes all of his songs, with the exception of a few. Surprisingly enough, no two songs sound alike. Silvio had mentioned before that that was something he picked up from The Beatles. Even if he writes two songs about the same topic, his use of the language is so resourceful that it all seems like something new.
He recorded his first album in 1975, after appearing on TV countless times with Pablo and Noel. In most of his albums, Silvio is the producer and arranger of all the songs, which he sings with just his guitar. Are they poetic? Yes. Are they hard to understand? No. His lyrics are tied down to the earth, filled with the beauty of everyday life, finding the enexplicable, making us realize those things we find ourselves missing later on in life.
Today Silvio is part of the Cuban parliament. He has been reelected for five years now as a House representative. But he still travels frequently doing concerts in Latin America and Europe. He still finds time to sign autographs, to acknowledge the members of La Tropa Cósmica in his concerts, to stand up to destiny, to keep searching for the Unicorn.