Guantanamera

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The version of the song Guantanamera , which is widespread today, is based on a Guajira melody of Cuban music . This in turn refers to some verses from the cycle of poems Versos Sencillos ("simple verses") by the Cuban national hero José Martí . From 1929 to 1935, José Fernández Díaz improvised on the radio on current events, so-called Décimas, and sang Guantanamera and Guajira Guantanamera as the refrain . The chorus text became synonymous with "bad news" in Cuba in the 1930s. The improvisation of the song by Joseíto Fernández later became world famous.

history

After a few detours, it was Pete Seeger who first used the Martí text in 1963 in Carnegie Hall in New York. But there are also recordings on which José Fernández Díaz sings the Martí text. Shortly before his death in 1976 Fernández Díaz sang a Guantanamera version in the Lenin Park in Havana, improvising the Décima text as usual, i.e. not using the well-known Martí text. In 1985, his heirs were awarded the rights to the text by a Cuban court. In 1993 the Cuban Supreme Court declared Fernández Díaz (1908–1979) to be the sole author of the composition.

Pete Seeger's 1963 performance in New York also made the song better known beyond Cuba. It became a song of the American trade union movement . In the summer of 1966, a version of the song by the group The Sandpipers was released , which was made available to a large audience in Europe, mainly through British pirate channels .

In 1995, a year before his death, Tomás Gutiérrez Alea made a film of the same name in which this song serves as the theme song .

The text

refrain

The refrain is Guantanamera, Guajira Guantanamera , that's a play on words:

Guantanamera is the feminine form of the adjective for Guantánamo and means "coming from Guantánamo".

In Cuba, Guajira stands for a style of music or a dance on the one hand, but also for a woman from the country or a farmer on the other. Guajira Guantanamera means both “Guajira song from Guantánamo” and “Peasant woman from Guantánamo”.

Stanzas

Original Spanish text German translation

Yo soy un hombre sincero,
de donde crece la palma,
y antes de morirme quiero
echar mis versos del alma.

I'm a sincere person
from where the palm tree grows,
and before I die I
want to sing my verses from my soul.

Wed verso es de un verde claro
y de un carmín encendido.
Wed verso es un ciervo herido
que busca en el monte amparo.

My verse is bright green
and inflamed red.
My verse is a wounded deer
who seeks refuge on the mountain.

Cultivo una rosa blanca,
En julio como en enero,
Para el amigo sincero
Que me da su mano franca.

I prefer a white rose,
in July as in January,
for the honest friend
who gives me his free hand.

Con los pobres de la tierra
quiero yo mi suerte echar.
El arroyo de la sierra
me complace más que el mar.


I want to make my fortune with the poorest on earth .
The mountain stream
delights me more than the sea.

Other interpretations

In the following years Guantanamera was and is interpreted by numerous artists, both by political songwriters and producers of popular music:

In 2002 a football battle song, which was already shaped during Rudi Völler's active days, was revived, which connects the melody of Guantanamera with the text There is only one 'Rudi Völler . Furthermore, various comedy songs with repositioned lyrics are based on the melody of Guantanamera. There was a commercial in Sweden in which the melody Panta mera! (for example: "Use more returnable bottles") is sung. In many Protestant parishes in Germany, a text by Jürgen Werth , Lord of All Times , is sung to the melody .

The song Guantanamera also appears in an instrumental version in Harry Gregson-Williams ' soundtrack for the film Antz . The song also appears in the Netflix series House of Money .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Die Toten Hosen: Lyrics for the album On behalf of the Lord . (No longer available online.) Die Toten Hosen, archived from the original on October 29, 2013 ; accessed on January 6, 2014 .