A Cuban’s Lament
A Cuban’s Lament
My father, Carlos Antonio Muller, wrote this poem, in Spanish*, in November, 1963. At the time my three brothers and I were already in the United States. My father and my mother were still in Havana, Cuba, where they had been waiting for more than a year to receive permission to leave the country.
To those who enjoy
the blessings of liberty,
with its carols and its joys
comes the Feast of the Nativity
The Feast of the Nativity is near!
And, with it, the Redeemer
bringing joy to the whole world
with His glory and His love.
How much joy is for the taking
if we have liberty!
If we can all gather together
to celebrate the Nativity.
How much Christians do rejoice
with the Feast of the Nativity!
When the God Child brings
the greatest festivity.
Liberty and the Feast of the Nativity!
O what ineffable delight
when we finally gather
with the people we love . . .
Liberty, how beautiful the sound
of such wondrous words
ever filling the soul
with peace and with hope.
Feast of the Nativity! God bestowed on you a very special power
to lift our humanness
to new spiritual heights.
Nativity and Liberty!
How many doubts assail us
when those who are dearest
are far away and missed.
How can other nations
enjoy peace for even a second,
while those of us dwelling in Cuba
are forgotten by the world?
No one feels compassion!
Why? Seeing our affliction
from this terrible oppression
living in the grips of fear?
How much sorrow abounds in my Cuba
during this Feast of the Nativity…!
Will our friends not come
to restore our liberty…?
They must have hearts like rocks
those who are blissfully happy
and are blind… and are deaf
to our wretched laments.
Liberty… given by God
as a gift to all humankind,
if you are absent . . .what great sadness
when the Nativity arrives!
Feast of the Nativity! May your holy name move other nations
to make it possible that in my beautiful Cuba, liberty will once again arise.
Feast of the Nativity! May in your name
PEACE return to us,
and free my fatherland
from this treacherous regime.
Why post this 49 years later? First, because Cuba is still a nation in chains, and, sadly, to a great extent, the world still seems to ignore this fact. Secondly, because as we approach the celebration of Christmas, I still harbor my father’s hope that peace and freedom will be restored in our country of origin.
*I thank my brother, Francisco Javier Muller, and my husband, Sixto Garcia, for their help with the translation into English.
Justice and Peace Shall Kiss 