La guitarra del joven soldado [English translation]

The guitar of the young soldier

is freckled and discrete;

it is so timid that it only sings

after ten.

When they play Silence,

she awaits an hour

and slips away, on tiptoes,

and on the mountain, beneath a tree,

looses to the wind her love and her faith.

The guitar of the young soldier

is a recruit also.

The guitar of the young soldier

reveals secrets;

she loosens for a gaze

in arpeggios of love.

Each instant she asks him tunes and sones1,

songs that I've never heard,

and searching for them she always wakes up,

attempting at a better chord.

The guitar of the young soldier

didn't sleep today either.

The guitar of the young soldier

is the jealous lover

of what comes to follow it

in the spoken word and also in the outcry,

but always helping to live.

The guitar of the young soldier

is his best rifle.

1. cuban traditional music

• Artist:Silvio Rodríguez
• Album:Silvio (1992)