Prelude for the year 3001 (I shall be reborn)

(By Horacio Ferrer, translation from the Italian 
by Robert Cowart)

I shall be born again on a June evening,
With this desire to love and to live stronger still.
I'll be reborn (it is detiny) in the year 3001,
My lovely city will be a festival of color.

The stray dogs will bark  at my shadow...
With my modest baggage I'll  arrive from the Great Beyond
And knelling at the edge  of the transparent sea
I shall shape for myself a new heart from salt and mud.

A vagabond, a clown and a magician will come;
My inmortal comrades, shouting  "Courage ... arise.
"That's the way! Take heart, be born! Courage, brother,
'For the work of death and rebirth is beautiful but hard."

I shall be reborn! Reborn! Reborn!
And an unearthly voice will give to me
The great and pure faith that will serve me...
I shall return ... again I shall believe... and struggle!
I'll wear a red flower in my buttom-hole
And I shall be reborn whether anyone else ever has!
My country ... 30th Century... , you will see:
I shall be reborn! Reborn! Reborn!

I shall be reborn from the things I have loved so deeply...
When shadows of the house say softly "He is here!"
I shall kiss the memory of your quiet eyes,
To complete the poem I left half-done.

I shall be reborn from the fruit of village market
And the grimy ambience of a romantic café.
From the ruined village that crumbled in an earthquake
And from the rage of the Southern people , I shall be born.

You'll see, I'll be born in the year 3001
And with the people who never were, but will be then;
We willbless the earth, our earth... and I swear to you 
That this country shall come into being onc again.

I shall be reborn! Reborn! Reborn!
And an unearthly voice will give to me
The great and pure faith that will serve me...
I shall return ... again I shall believe... and struggle!
I'll wear a red flower in my buttom-hole
And I shall be reborn whether anyone else ever has!
My country ...30th Century..., you will see:
I shall be reborn! Reborn! Reborn!