El mayor [English translation]

Men have always been made

of all kinds of materials;

from royal houses

to marginal neigborhoods

All ages were pieces

of a puzzle

to go up the slope

of the great animal kingdom,

with a black hand

and the other, white and lethal

The Major was made up

of fatal ingredients,

light from the landlords

and from the revolution,

dexterity in fencing,

events with a prisoner,

An amelia that was abandoned

by the bullet,

the shame, love,

or an execution*,

an old tale

these things modeled his farewell

The Major goes riding with his wound,

and the deadliest the wound is, the more life he gains

He goes riding over a written palm

and one hundred years from here, he resurrects

He rides over the seafoam

followed by a sea

of blacks with machetes

and unchained

His cornet orders

the beheading,

and a century from here,

he intones our song

and with his fierce throat

he sings,

he scares the curse away

• Artist:Silvio Rodríguez
• Album:Días y flores (1975)