Fragmento Del Payador Perseguido - Atahualpa Yupanqui translation in English

Fragmento Del Payador Perseguido

Yo he caminao por el mundo
He cruzao tierras y mares
Sin frontera que me pare
Y en cualesquiera guarida
Yo he cantao en tierra querida
Tus dichas y tus pesares

A veces caí para el canto
Como vacaje a la aguada
Para escuchar mis versadas
Hombres de todos los vientos
Trenzando sus sentimientos
Al compás de la encordada

Pobre de aquel que no sabe del canto
Las hermosuras
La vida, la más oscura
La que tiene más quebrantos
Hallará siempre en el canto
Consuelo pa su tristura

Dicen que no tienen canto
Los ríos que son profundos
Más yo aprendí en este mundo
Que el que tiene más hondura
Canta mejor por ser hondo
Y hace miel de su amargura

Y aunque me quiten la vida
O engrillen mi libertad
Y aunque chamusquen quizá
Mi guitarra en los fogones
Han de vivir mis canciones
En l'alma de los demás

No me nombren, que es pecao
Y no comenten mis trinos
Yo me voy con mi destino
Pa'l lao donde el sol se pierde
Tal vez alguno se acuerde
Que aquí cantó un argentino

Fragment of the Persecuted Singer

I've walked this world, my love,
Crossed lands and seas so wide,
No border could my steps abide,
And in whatever hideaway I've found,
I've sung on beloved ground,
Your joys and sorrows, side by side.

At times I fell to song's embrace,
Like cattle to the watering place,
To hear my verses flow and chime,
Men from every walk of time,
Weaving their feelings, so divine,
To the rhythm of my strings' rhyme.

Pity him who doesn't know the art of song's sweet grace,
Its beauty rare,
Life, even at its darkest, where despair
And hardship leave their trace,
Will always find in song's embrace
Solace for its grief and care.

They say that rivers deep and vast
Have no song to give at last,
But I've learned in this world so grand,
That the deepest heart, the profoundest land,
Sings the best, its voice so planned,
And makes honey from its bitter brand.

And even if they take my life from me,
Or shackle my sweet liberty,
And even if they scorch, you see,
My guitar in the fire's decree,
My songs will live eternally,
In the souls of others, wild and free.

Don't speak my name, for it's a sin,
And do not mention my song's thin din,
I go with my destiny's spin,
To where the setting sun descends within,
Perhaps someone will remember then,
That here an Argentinian did sing, my friend.