Poesía

Pedro De Mendoza

O persistence, in spite of syphilis

Had Pedro de Mendoza, founding Buenos Aires,

Where Indians attacked night and day,

And his men died of hunger and illness.

A bad commander was he, according to accounts,

But O what misery he must have endured;

Rich, from the Sack of Rome, highly favoured

By the King of Spain, sent

To conquer La Plata, and bring back gold,-

He found nothing, other than agony

And disillusionment.  Utterly greedy,

Nasty man; but what fortitude!

 

He sent Ayolas to find the gold

Who ventured into the Chaco,

But on his return, he was killed

By a sharp, Payaguan arrow.

 

The soft beauty seduced them all

Into mad adventure in serious soul,

Coping with difficulty, pain, exhaustion,

Because of European lust, but also mythical hope

Absorbed from the Guaraní,

Who always yearned for the Mbaé Verá Guazú,

The Land Without Evil, mystical paradise

With a Silver Mountain;

These things merged,

And Paraguay was born,

Crazy and young.