"Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Final Farewell"
One Hundred Years of
Solitude, was treated for lymphatic cancer. In the wake of that, there were
persistent rumors about his failing health.
On May 29, 2000 these rumors appeared to be confirmed when a poem that
was signed with his name appeared in the Peruvian daily La Republica. The
poem was titled "La Marioneta" or "The Puppet," and it was reportedly a
farewell poem that Garcia Marquez had written and sent out to his closest
friends on account of his worsening condition
the poem
"The Puppet"
If for a moment God would forget that I am a rag doll and give me a scrap of
life, possibly I would not say everything that I think, but I would definitely think
everything that I say.
I would value things not for how much they are worth but rather for what they
mean.
I would sleep little, dream more. I know that for each minute that we close our
eyes we lose sixty seconds of light.
I would walk when the others loiter; I would awaken when the others sleep.
I would listen when the others speak, and how I would enjoy a good chocolate
ice cream.
If God would bestow on me a scrap of life, I would dress simply, I would throw
myself flat under the sun, exposing not only my body but also my soul.
My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hatred on ice and wait for the sun to
come out. With a dream of Van Gogh I would paint on the stars a poem by
Benedetti, and a song by Serrat would be my serenade to the moon.
With my tears I would water the roses, to feel the pain of their thorns and the
incarnated kiss of their petals...My God, if I only had a scrap of life...
I wouldn't let a single day go by without saying to people I love, that I love
them.
I would convince each woman or man that they are my favourites and I would
live in love with love.
I would prove to the men how mistaken they are in thinking that they no longer
fall in love when they grow old--not knowing that they grow old when they stop
falling in love. To a child I would give wings, but I would let him learn how to
fly by himself. To the old I would teach that death comes not with old age but
with forgetting. I have learned so much from you men....
I have learned that everybody wants to live at the top of the mountain without
realizing that true happiness lies in the way we climb the slope.
I have learned that when a newborn first squeezes his father's finger in his
tiny fist, he has caught him forever.
I have learned that a man only has the right to look down on another man
when it is to help him to stand up. I have learned so many things from you, but
in the end most of it will be no use because when they put me inside that
suitcase, unfortunately I will be dying.
translated by Matthew Taylor and Rosa Arelis Taylo
