Wall of the Dead poem

In January I blogged about the Muro de Los Muertos by Ajijic artist Efren Gonzalez, a giant ceramic mural made up of bas-relief plaques shaped as skulls, each inscribed with the name of the person to whom it is dedicated, installed in rows along the exterior of the primary school opposite the San Andres church in Ajijic. Here is my translation, with the artist’s permission, of the beautiful poem that is part of the installation.

Wall of the Dead  by Efren Gonzalez translated by Susa Silvermarie

All that lives will die.
All the good, the bad, will be finished.
All that is strong and all that is weak will have an end.
Everything that breathes in, has to breathe out, to expire.
Everyone who is famous will be forgotten.
Everyone who believes himself indispensable, will perish.
Every creator, the ones who sing, the ones who dance—
those that admire, those that underestimate and criticize—
will stop existing.
And if someone is lucky, they will put his name
on the wall and thus he will be remembered a little longer.
And they will be sung and danced,
or underestimated and criticized, and then,
finally, along with the wall,
they will cease to exist.

Eat, child. Sing, dance, love.
You won’t live forever.
Make art for which you will be remembered.
Do it now, you don’t have much time.
Say what you have to say, even if
you have to shout to be heard.
Fight to defend yourself!
Ask forgiveness, or forgive,
whatever you need to do
to keep going forward
Live.     Live!