Paper Boat, Faithful Friend / Rebeca Monzo

Yesterday, Sunday again, hearing on the program Memories, on the radio, that childhood song that gives its title to this post, and that marks our children, who today are over forty, I shuddered. I would say that the lyrics were a premonition for that generation.

Those children of days gone by, today’s men and women, are dispersed throughout the world. Most of them traded in that little paper boat for one of wood with oars, or an outboard motor. The more fortunate took a plane. How sad! That faithful friend who would take us sailing on the wide sea, separated loved ones and many are still unable to return. Being forced by circumstances to form their own families, far from the land that saw their birth and the places and friends with whom they shared that song.

So yesterday, when suddenly I heard the melody again in the voice on Consuelito Vidal (imitating the voice of a child), far from smiling, the nostalgia and the grief made me cry.

April 4 2011