Fernando’s Eyes, a homage to Fernando Cardenal

HAVANA TIMES – The following is a writer and poet’s homage to Jesuit father Fernando Cardenal who passed away on February 20th in Managua, Nicaragua.

Fernando’s Eyes

By Gioconda Belli  (confidencial.com.ni)

Fernando’s eyes

Fernando’s blue eyes

Fernando’s steady eyes

 

It rained in Granada;

a cloudburst in summer

at 9 in the morning

on the day of his passing,

The very day the Poetry Festival concluded.

 

What most strikes the poets

who’ve come from all parts of the world

is the silence of the multitudes filling the square.

They hush to listen to poetry:

vendors of snow-cones, popcorn, cigarettes,

women who sell vigorón in the park,

men who offer sunglasses, dozens of them,

pegged to a plywood sheet.

The high and mighty:

professionals, children, entire families,

are silent to hear with veneration

their poetry.

 

Fernando’s sweet eyes

Fernando’s fierce eyes

 

I think about Nicaraguans’ love for poetry;

And I see Ernesto, the great poet,

And Fernando, opening Nicaragua’s eyes in the Literacy Campaign

So many eyes were opened, pair by pair:

the eyes of the illiterate who couldn´t read or write.

How many were given the magic world of poetry, of fiction, of science, of mathematics,

in that most vital of the Revolution’s battles?

A battle of love Fernando led like a tenacious and transparent general

at the head of hosts of adolescents

who left their homes singing, to go deep into the backcountry

and teach people to read.

 

Fernando’s blue eyes

Fernando’s sweet eyes

 

So much was lost of all that mattered most in that revolution,

but Fernando’s war will remain in the annals of our history

as the greatest and the sweetest campaign this country

ever launched.

 

Fernando’s sweet eyes

Fernando’s fierce eyes

 

Nothing, not a handful of earth for his grave did this General ask for himself

He took his leave of public life, in silence he withdrew, to continue

serving, because his commitment was never to a party but to God and

his fellows. And for them, humble and dogged, he always came through.

 

Fernando’s steady eyes

 

Hard to imagine we’ll see him no more. I wish I could invoke new words

to say that his memory will live, that we’ll never let him die.

But it’s too soon to think of days without him, and I prefer not to say goodbye.

I’d rather applaud, ring the bells,

honk the horns, shake the castanets, for all he gave us:

For his beautiful

generous life.

___________________

February 20, 2016