Silvio Rodriguez 2: Sueño Con Serpientes (I Dream of Serpents)

By
Vern Nelson
– November 10, 2008Posted in: "The OC"

All you fighters for truth and justice (which I assume is most everyone on this blog in their own way) know the feeling:  You kill one monster, and a bigger one appears. This is the second of the three Silvio Rodgriguez songs I’ll be performing at my concert Nov. 16.  (Just printing the English translation this time…)

[audio:http://orangejuiceblog.com/music/serpientes.mp3]

“There are men who struggle for a day, and they are good.
There are others who struggle for a year, and they are better.
There are some who struggle many years, and they are better still.
But there are those who struggle all their lives, and these are the indispensible ones.”
—Bertolt Brecht.

I dream of serpents, sea serpents, from a certain sea, oh, of serpents I dream.
Long, transparent, and in their bellies they carry all they can snatch away from love.
REFRAIN: Oh… I kill one and a larger one appears;
Oh… with even more hellfire burning inside it!

I don’t fit in its mouth, it tries to swallow me, but chokes on the trident of my temple.
I think it’s gone crazy; I give it a dove to chew and I poison it with my goodness.
(refrain)

This last one finally devours me, and as I pass down its throat I wonder what will come next.
But then I destroy it when I reach its stomach and present it with a verse of truth.
(refrain)

About Vern Nelson

Greatest pianist/composer in Orange County, and official political troubadour of Anaheim and most other OC towns. Regularly makes solo performances, sometimes with his savage-jazz band The Vern Nelson Problem. Reach at vernpnelson@gmail.com, or 714-235-VERN.