“Allende”

By Mario Benedetti

(translated by Oscar Gonzalez and Gary Corseri)

in order to kill the man of peace

to strike his forehead clean of nightmares

they had to become a nightmare

to defeat the man of peace

they had to congregate all hatreds

and planes and tanks as well

to batter the man of peace

they had to bombard him and turn him into flame

because the man of peace was a fortress

to kill the man of peace

they had to untie the turbid war

to vanquish the man of peace

and to silence his modest and piercing voice

they had to push terror to the abyss

and kill more just to keep killing

to batter the man of peace

they had to assassinate him many times

because the man of peace was a fortress

to kill the man of peace

they had to imagine he was a troop

an army a fleet a brigade

they had to believe he was another army

but the man of peace was just the people

and he had in his hands a rifle and a mandate

and they needed more tanks more rancor

more bombs more planes more shame

because the man of peace was a fortress

to kill the man of peace

to strike his forehead clean of nightmares

they had to become a nightmare

to defeat the man of peace

they had to join themselves forever to death

kill and kill more just to keep killing him

and condemn themselves to blinded loneliness

to kill the man that was the people

they had to lose the people.