Mondo de Muzikfaristoj
(World of Music-Makers)

1
My Guitar
                Agustín Barrios Mangoré (1885–1944/Paraguay)

Guitar: there is a mystery in your heart:
Deep-moving, like a mind enwrapped in flame:
Thoughts up-welled from places without name:
Unruly passions, clamouring with tears.

This heart is from al-Andalus, Maghreb,
América, the echoes of their songs,
The turbulent, sweet longing that belongs
To love, now lent to wake you, my guitar:

And weep with that awakening, for there,
So nearly human through the fret of strings,
The cry of Man vibrates upon the air:

The lonely keen of lonely souls, from where
His sorrowful and brave, unanswered prayer
Sings on unceasingly its sweet despair.
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