Nenia
In the Guarani language
a young Paraguayan girl
a sweet lament rehearses,
singing, on her harp, like this,
in the Guarani language:
“Cry, cry, urutaú,
on the branches of the yatay;
Paraguay is no more,
where I was born, the same as you!
Cry, cry, urutaú!
In the sweet city of Lambaré,
happy, I lived in my cabin;
then comes war, and all its rage
leaves nothing standing
in the sweet city of Lambaré.
Father, mother, siblings, Ay!
All in the world, I have lost;
in my broken heart
only a savage sorrow;
mother, father, siblings, Ay!
Beside a green ubirapitá tree,
my love, who fought
heroically in the Timbó,
is now buried there,
beside a green ubirapitá tree.
Ripping my white tipoy skirt
I wear as sign of grief,
upon that holy ground
upon it, forever on my knees,
ripping my white tipoy skirt!
They killed him, the cambá people,
powerless to make him kneel;
he was the last to leave
from Curuzú and Humaitá;
they killed him, the cambá people.
Oh heavens, why did I not die
when, triumphant, my love embraced me,
returned from Curupaití?
Oh heavens, why, did I not die?
Cry, cry, urutaú,
on the branches of the yatay;
Paraguay is no more,
where I was born, the same as you!
Cry, cry, urutaú!”
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