Gaucho
Aqui me pongo a cantar
al compas de la vihuela
Jose Hernandez
Sound in the color of the pampas
vast and empty, the rolling hills,
the sameness, endless days and nights;
Sometimes it is the sweet smell of the honeysuckle,
the vihuela of the South American Goucho
strumming you off to sleep, catching the wind;
Here! it is an instrument with six strings,
its sound box the shell of an armadillo.
In Spain, where the instrument was popular,
but has now been replaced by the guitar,
the animal is also practically extinct.
Those who sang to the music it produced,
and in whatever country, were similarly left
to die, and their remains were scattered.
Laws were promulgated. Women bit their lips
so as not to be prosecuted.. Book burnings
Vihuela burnings, musicians being put to the torch,
were as common then, under the auspices
of the Christian establishment
as amputations are today
among fundamentalist Moslems.