While looking forward to a new year, I remembered a poem called Ojalá by the late Uruguayan author Eduardo Galeano. The Spanish word “ojalá” means “if only.”
I feel lucky to have attended a lecture by Eduardo Galeano in 2013, two years before he passed. His many books included The Open Veins of Latin America, a book that author Isabel Allende said was one of the few items she took with her in 1973 when she fled Chile after the 9/11 military coup by Augusto Pinochet.
I was struck by what Eduardo Galeano said about the United Nations Security Council. I found the quote again in this worthwhile article, “Why are the five countries with veto power on the UN Security Council untouchable? Are they protected by some divine right? Do they use peace as a fig leaf to cloak the business of war? Is it right that world peace is entrusted to the five largest arms-producing nations?”
Despite the makeup of the Security Council, the United Nations has many fine rules, as well as principled votes by the vast majority of the General Assembly — rules and votes that the world wishes the US would follow. “If only” the US government would give up the blockade of Cuba, stop sanctions on 30-some nations, and accept the rulings of the International Court of Justice, there would be more Peace on Earth!
Here is the English translation, followed by the Spanish original. I hope you find it of value, as we move to a new year.
If Only
By Eduardo Galeano
If only we can have the courage to be alone and the bravery to risk being together, because it serves no purpose for a tooth to be separate from the mouth, or a finger to be separate from the hand.
If only we can be disobedient, each time we receive orders that abase our conscience or violate our common sense.
If only we can deserve being called crazy, as the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo have been called crazy, for committing the insanity of not letting us forget in times of obligatory amnesia.
If only we can be persistent enough to continue believing, against all evidence, that the human condition is worth the pain, because we have been badly made, but we are not finished.
If only we can have the capacity to continue walking the ways of the wind, despite the falls and the betrayals and the defeats, because history continues, beyond ourselves, and when history says goodbye, it is saying: until later.
If only we can keep the certainty alive that it is possible to be a compatriot and contemporary of all those who live inspirited by the will toward justice and the will toward beauty, may they be born wherever they are born and live whenever they live, because the maps of the soul and of time have no borders.
Ojalá
Por Eduardo Galeano
Ojalá podamos tener el coraje de estar solos y la valentía de arriesgarnos a estar juntos, porque de nada sirve un diente fuera de la boca, ni un dedo fuera de la mano.
Ojalá podamos ser desobedientes, cada vez que recibimos órdenes que humillan nuestra conciencia o violan nuestro sentido común.
Ojalá podamos merecer que nos llamen locos, como han sido llamadas locas las Madres de Plaza de Mayo, por cometer la locura de negarnos a olvidar en los tiempos de la amnesia obligatoria.
Ojalá podamos ser tan porfiados para seguir creyendo, contra toda evidencia, que la condición humana vale la pena, porque hemos sido mal hechos, pero no estamos terminados.
Ojalá podamos ser capaces de seguir caminando los caminos del viento, a pesar de las caídas y las traiciones y las derrotas, porque la historia continúa, más allá de nosotros, y cuando ella dice adiós, está diciendo: hasta luego.
Ojalá podamos mantener viva la certeza de que es posible ser compatriota y contemporáneo de todo aquel que viva animado por la voluntad de justicia y la voluntad de belleza, nazca donde nazca y viva cuando viva, porque no tienen fronteras los mapas del alma ni del tiempo.
May we all have a happy and meaningful new year!