Regino Pedroso, Nosotros, 1933 (adapted 2025)
There will be war again in Europe or Asia.
The United States will enter the conflict,
and we, the strong and the agile,
will be forced to leave the fields,
we will abandon the factories in droves
and become soldiers.
The song of the hammer will fall silent on the anvil.
fragmented by peoples, by flags, and by races,
they will take us to the barracks,
they will take us to battle.
but we will go unanimous to death!
There will be war again.
We will have prodigious harvests of riches
and harvests of dead.
There will be war again.
We will go to it, young people,
with the anthem on our lips…
But we will return — those who return! —
in long caravans of invalids.
Once again, we will fill the cities and workshops
with our songs.
We will have died abroad,
and we will return as slaves.
The same free flags will wave,
and we will remain slaves.
We will be victorious heroes,
but we will be hungry;
there will be bread and riches,
but we will be hungry!
Fertilized with the blood of brothers,
the cane will be tall and juicy; it will yield golden honey;
but we will be hungry.
The beautiful and great homeland will be there,
and we will wander…
We will continue as before, hungry,
—an immense defeated flock—
before the great canvases of twilight.
Until one day,
—now people without races or borders, only proletarians—
before the deaf anvils and dead engines,
we will ask ourselves with brutal anxiety
If we have fought for anything!
And on that day, learning from past wars,
we will once again set out
towards the battlefields
but this time as communist men and women
without nations, with the International on our lips
and communism in our minds and hearts.
With rifles in our hands, we will be soldiers again
but this time communist soldiers
forging with fire, courage, and love
the communist world that is our salvation.
And there we will rejoice, yes!
We have fought for something!