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Question SA-12. Here is the text reference (p. 161/poem):
"Simple Verses" by José Martí
I am a sincere man
born where the palm trees grow;
and before dying, I want
to release these verses from my soul.
I come from all places,
and to all places I go;
art I am among the arts;
and in the hills I am hill.
I know all the strange names
of the herbs and the flowers,
of mortal trickery,
and sublime pain.
I have seen the dark night
rain upon my head
and the rays of pure light
coming from divine beauty.
I have seen wings born on shoulders
of beautiful women,
and butterflies flying up
out of the debris.
I have seen a man
with a dagger in his side,
who never spoke the name
of the woman who killed him.
Quick, like a reflection,
twice I have seen a soul, twice:
first when the old man died
and then when she said goodbye to me.
I trembled once - at the grating,
at the entrance of my vineyard -,
when the savage bee
stung my little girl's forehead.
I felt pleasure, of a sort
that I never felt before: when
the warden, crying
read my death sentence.
I hear a sigh over
land and the seas,
yet it is not a sigh, it is
my son about to awaken.
If they say take from the jeweler
the best of his jewels,
I take a sincere friend
and set aside love.
I have seen the wounded eagle
fly the serene blue sky,
and I've seen the lair
where the poisonous viper dies.
I know full well that when the world
surrenders, tired, to rest,
that over the deep silence
the quiet stream murmurs.
I have put a daring hand,
stiff with horror and joy,
to touch the burned-out star
that fell at my front door.
I hide in my wild chest
the pain that wounds me:
the son of an enslaved people
lives for it, is quiet, and dies.
All is beautiful and constant,
all is music and reason,
and all, just like the diamond
is coal before light comes.
I know that the stupid man is buried
with great pomp and many tears,
and that there is no fruit on earth
quite like the cemetery's.
I am silent, and I remove
the pomp of the verse-maker;
I hang up on a withered tree
my academic gown.