SocialistStories حكايات اشتراكية

Liberty, You Say
by Otto Rene Castillo

Liberty,
you tell me,
is the most beautiful
thing that exists
on our young
planet.
You can't
live without it;
it's like oxygen
of the soul.
If you have it,
you can never
lose it,
for you would die
from such immense pain.

It is not conquered.
It is carried humbly,
like an afternoon
in the depths of the heart.

But I who live
and suffer my country
like no one else,
I do not agree
with you.
The people here
have never been free.
For many it no longer matters
if the chain is thick

Download: 

Liberty, You Say - Otto Rene Castillo.pdf

Statistics on Freedom
by Roque Dalton

Freedom of the press for Salvadoran people
costs 20 centavos a day
counting only those who can read
and have more than 20 centavos left over
after eating barely enough to stay alive.

Freedom of the press for the big
industrial merchants and publicists
sells for thousands and change for a black and white page
and I don't know how much for a square inch
of text or illustration.

Freedom of the press
for Don Napoleon Viera Altamirano
and Dutriz and Pinto and the owners of El Mundo
is worth millions:

Download: 

Statistics on Freedom - Roque Dalton.pdf

Freedom
by Otto Rene Castillo

For you
we have so many blows
on our skin
that even standing on end
there's no room for us in death.

In my country
freedom is something more
than a delicate breeze of the soul,
it is also a courage of skin.
In every inch of its infinite cry
your name is written:
freedom.
In the tortured hands.
In the eyes, open in shock
of mourning.
On the brow in its dignity.
In the breast, where man
grows up in us.
On our back, in our feet that suffer.
In our balls
proud of themselves.

Download: 

Freedom - Otto Rene Castillo.pdf