Speak Truth To Power by Ariel Dorfman

I don’t want to pretend I was a hero

In the beginning I had neither pen nor paper to work with

But you don’t live your life in fear

and give people power over you

who can create fear

It would be better to die early

Anything else would have tasted like ashes

That’s what you know

Few and far between

Few and far between

Something is there

A light is there

I did what I had to do

Knowing this knowing this

The poor of the world are crying out

That’s what you know

Anything else would have tasted like ashes

That’s what you know

The poor of the world are crying out

The poor of the world are crying out

For schools and doctors, not generals and guns

You just have to believe in what you’re doing, that’s all

I was never alone

That’s what you know

Only another person can give me hope

because

only another person can take hope

away from me

We did what we had to do, that’s all

Anything else would have tasted like ashes

Did it take courage?

It took stubbornness. Stubbornness

Like a metal chord inside

The feeling of inner strength like a metal chord inside

So our past does not become your children’s future

Anything else would have tasted like ashes

Knowing this knowing this

We owe something to the people left behind

And God dusts us off and God says, “Try again.”

God says, “Try again.”

God says,

Life will only belong to you once

only this once

And so we continue

knowing this knowing this

if we bring people to their own best hearts

they will respond

that’s what you know

we were never alone

And so we continue

knowing this knowing this

that this moment might well be

our last

waiting, waiting,

waiting in the dark for the truth

We were never really alone

I don’t want to pretend I was a hero

I did what I had to do, that’s all

It’s really so simple

Anything else, anything else would have tasted like ashes

That is what you know

The work has just begun

That is what we know

We did what we had to do

The work has just begun.

Photo Credit: A crowd of children watch a boat cross a river in Kinango District near Mombasa.