Imanol (born as Imanol Larzabal Goñi) (1947-2004) was one of the most important Basque songwriters. With his very strong and deep voice, he sung about his time, against dictatorship and injusticies, so he had to go exiled to France, where he met great songwriter Paco Ibáñez, a singer, son of Spanish exiled, who put into music the great Spanish poetry; so, Imanol and Paco collaborated many times. Aside from a clandestine single published in Spain under pseudonim, as Michel Etxegaray, Imanol recorded in the 70s his first records in France in Basque. But in the 1975’s LP, Herriak ez du barkatuko (“People shall not forget”), Imanol rotate songs as in Basque as in Spanish, accompanied by some of the members of the disclosure Breton folk-band Gwendal, group that, due to Imanol, collected such a success in Spain.
To that 75’s album belonged this song, in Spanish, written by a Basque miner who signed as “Somorrostro”, who seems to be an amateur poet in the poetic circle of great Basque poet Gabriel Aresti, an Imanol’s good friend, who sent the poem to him (although in Spanish, confer discussion on Lucini’s page: http://fernandolucini.blogspot.com/2011/02/caratulas-con-historia-un-disco.html#comments). “Martillo pilón” (“Trip hammer”) is a flaring poem about the working class, that seems to be, perfectly, so influenced by the Marxists dialectics:
Martillo pilón
Hoy como ayer la sangre está vertida,
hoy como ayer latente está la afrenta
que a través de los siglos en su cuenta
acumuló mi clase escarnecida.
Somos los hombres que la historia olvida,
aquellos a quien nadie representa,
los que el mundo en sus libros no comentan
ni los dioses nacieron a la vida.
Perdimos mil batallas en la huida,
nos diezmaron las pestes, la tormenta,
rasgando con sadismo nuestra herida,
¡rasgando con sadismo nuestra herida!
Pero escuchar la clase enflaquecida:
los parias de la historia y de la renta
no dan aún la guerra por perdida
¡no dan aún la guerra por perdida!
Trip Hammer
Today as yesterday blood is shed,/ today as yesterday latent is the affront/ that through centuries on their account/ my own mocked class were amassing.// We are the men forgotten by History,/ those whom no one represents,/ those whom are not commented on world’s books/ nor gods made us born into life.// We lost a thousand of battles on escaping,/ we were decimated by the plagues, the storm,/ ripping sadistically down our wound,/ ripping sadistically down our wound!// But listen to the emaciated class: the pariah of History and rent/ don’t give war up for lost yet,/ they don’t give war up for lost yet!
Lyrics by “Somorrostro”
Music by Imanol
Although is in Spanish, read great Spanish songwriting expert Fernando González Lucini’s wirtings about Imanol:
http://fernandolucini.blogspot.com/search/label/Imanol
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