Federico Arcos
Raúl Carballeira
Since 1939, young anarchists in Spain have paid the price for resisting Francoism. Raúl Carballeira, a prominent figure in the anarchist underground, was one who paid the ultimate price when surrounded by police on Montjuich mountain in Barcelona.
Raúl Carballeira
(February 28, 1918 — June 26, 1948)
Bursts of shrapnel
mowed down your young body.
But you still had a gasp of breath,
a gasp of breath and a bullet;
and your mind, like a rapid steed,
galloping in the air,
on a hot June afternoon,
exploded under your own impact.
I cry out and I cry out with vehemence;
I cry out with vehemence, oh brother;
for never did they succeed
in enchaining The Idea
nor gagging The Word.
The word that expresses
the soul of the ideas.
We are a hammer of steel.
We shall continue hammering.
Each word, a blow;
each blow, a spark;
each phrase, a flame;
and in fires of words,
torches of The Idea
illuminating the darkness,
we shall proceed on the path
with the dawns of truth.
mowed down your young body.
But you still had a gasp of breath,
a gasp of breath and a bullet;
and your mind, like a rapid steed,
galloping in the air,
on a hot June afternoon,
exploded under your own impact.
I cry out and I cry out with vehemence;
I cry out with vehemence, oh brother;
for never did they succeed
in enchaining The Idea
nor gagging The Word.
The word that expresses
the soul of the ideas.
We are a hammer of steel.
We shall continue hammering.
Each word, a blow;
each blow, a spark;
each phrase, a flame;
and in fires of words,
torches of The Idea
illuminating the darkness,
we shall proceed on the path
with the dawns of truth.