Verses to Che by the Great Cuban Poets

The figure of Commander Ernesto Che Guevara de la Serna became an inexhaustible source of inspiration in Cuba.

Since his death in 1967, great poets have dedicated works to his memory and legacy, creating a glossary ranging from elegy to prose.

After Che’s death, numerous renowned bards turned their texts into classics of contemporary Cuban literature. Among the first and most notable, we remember the extraordinary poem «Che Comandante» by National Poet Nicolás Guillén, who wrote it upon the hero’s death and read it at the solemn evening of October 18, 1967, in the Plaza de la Revolución.

His prophetic verses describe him: «Not because you have fallen / is your light any less high,» and those words struck deep in the feeling of our people.

Poetess Mirta Aguirre, with her «Canción antigua al Che Guevara,» structured as a metaphorical dialogue between the author and Che, has been read by millions of Cubans in the elementary school reading book.

Likewise, Eliseo Diego wrote «Donde nunca jamás se lo imaginan,» a poem that rejects the idea of Guevara as a motionless statue, affirming that he was «the fire, the light, the air, American freedom.»

And in a singular way, José Lezama Lima created the work titled «Ernesto Guevara, Comandante nuestro,» in which he describes the Heroic Guerrilla as a «man of all beginnings» — a mythical image that transcends death.

Unforgettable are the poems of Fina García Marruz, Cintio Vitier, Miguel Barnet, and Félix Pita Rodríguez, among other recognized authors, given the repercussion of his presence in Cuban history, in his capacity as doctor, politician, guerrilla, writer, journalist, and revolutionary to the last consequences.

As the composer Pablo Milanés well expressed of Che: «If the poet is you. As the poet said.

And the one who has knocked down stars on a thousand nights, of colorful rains, is you…

Warrior forever, eternal time…»

Photo: Carl Steffen