The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #8548   Message #53631
Posted By: Felipa
12-Jan-99 - 07:27 AM
Thread Name: songs of Victor Jara (1932-1973)
Subject: Add: VIENTOS DEL PUEBLO^^
I read the Joan Jara book under the title "Victor-An Unfinished Song". It includes some lyrics and there's a tape available to go with it.

Here's some lyrics from an anonymously compiled US publication "Winds of the People" [the book gives no music, only recommended guitar chords]:

VIENTOS DEL PUEBLO (Winds of the People)

De nuevo quieren manchar
Mi patria con sangre obrera
Los que hablan de libertad
Y tienen las manos negras
Los que quieren dividir
A la madre de sus hijos
Y quieren reconstruir
La cruz que arrastrara Cristo
[Em D/Am Em/Am B7/-Em(orE)
Em G/Bm Am/-C/C B7 -- w/ capo up 2]

Quieren ocultar la infamia
Que legaron desde siglos
Pero el color de asesinos
No borrarán de su cara
Ya fueron miles y miles
Los que entregaron su sangre
Y, en caudales generosos
Multiplicaron los panes.

Ahora quiero vivir
Junto a mi hijo y mi hermano
La primavera que todos
Vamos construyendo a diario
No me asusta la menaza
Patrones de la miseria [pause]
La estrella de la esperanza
Continuará siendo nuestra.
[chords for last 4 lines: E G/ G Bm (tacit)/ (tacit) Am/Am Em]

Vientos del pueblo me llevan
Vientos del pueblo me arrastran
Me esparcen el corazón
Y me aventan la garganta
Así cantará el poeta
Cuando la muerte me lleve
Por los caminos del pueblo
Desde ahora y para siempre.
[as first 2 verses, adding: B7Am - Em]
On Victor Jara's Monitor album and on Inti-Illimani 2.

trans: " Once more they want to stain my country with workers' blood -- those who talk of liberty yet have blackened hands, those who want to separate the mother from her children & reconstruct the cross Christ carried./ They want to hide the infamy they've bequeathed down the centuries. but the color of the murderers cannot be wiped from their face. Already thousands and thousands have sacrificed their blood, & its generous streams have multiplied the loaves of bread./ I want to live now with my child and my friend, to go together toward the springtime we're building each day. Your masters of misery can't scare me with your threats; the star of hope continues to be ours!/ Winds of the people bear me, carry me, scatter my heart and blow thru my throat. So that the poet can go on singing even when death takes me down the roads of the people, both now and forever."

Recording by Víctor Jara
2009 live rendition by Inti Illimani Histórico + Quilapayún