Manolo Chinato

Manolo Chinato is a Spanish poet, born on December 31, 1952, in Puerto de Béjar (Salamanca). His poems mainly deal with bucolic, sentimental, and social themes, and part of his work has been published in a book titled Love, Rebellion, Freedom, and Blood. He is known for collaborating with several rock bands, such as Extremoduro, Platero y Tú, and Marea.

From his work, we can highlight beautiful verses like these:

My soul is hoarse from loving you

in this full solitude that suffocates me;

my eyes are full of light from imagining you

and my eyes are blind from not seeing you;

My body is abandoned to abandonment

And my body is shivering from not being able to touch you;

My voice is rough from talking to so many people

And my voice is precious from singing to you;

My hands are cracked from the frost

And my hands are soft from caressing you in the sky;

I have solitude, light, joy, sadness,

Rebellions, love, smiles, and tears...

I am an eternal traveler of dreams and illusions.

I am an eternal traveler of loves.

I will cross the seas in my pirate ship

with the cannons clogged

and my flag will be white.

I will dominate the skies like a bird

shedding from my body

white and multicolored feathers of love and peace.

I will ride through valleys and mountains on my Gypsy

Leaving no trace for return

but the smile and kindness.

I will listen to chilling stories from the old.

I will tell invented stories

to precious sweet and mischievous children;

and I will love tenderly and madly

the woman who deserves the pure love

of that sweet vagabond.

(Eternal traveler)

I went out into the street embraced by sadness:

I saw what no one looks at and it made me ashamed and sad.

Solitude that clings to my soul

in the sweet solitude of this autumn field.

There are no moments of calm.

Pure rebellion of loves without loves.

Pure illusions and pure conformisms

trying to lift the nostalgic spirit

of wanting to be with you and never being so.

The inconsolable cries that strangle the throats;

the hunched old men: it seems the earth calls them.

and you will see again who loves you drunk;

drunk with loves and freedoms.

And also with wines to forget you. Drunk...

It saddens me that courage in battle is admired;

fortunately, words cannot be killed with rifles.

And if greetings and words arise

perhaps you will notice the harshness of my style

wanting not to hurt you in anything,

and in my solitude only hurt myself.

Justice is arrested by order of greed;

the money that saves you is the same that kills you.

And you will undoubtedly see the powerful resurgence of the warrior

without fear of laws or nostalgia

and you will see him fall a thousand times and rise again,

with the pure flag of his race.

Solitude of loves sad and pure,

solitude of loves and madness.

Don't give me more hopes: I know they're all lies;

sacks full of holes to store joys.

And you will undoubtedly see the powerful resurgence of the warrior

without fear of laws or nostalgia

and you will see him fall a thousand times and rise again,

with the pure flag of his race.

It saddens me that courage in battle is admired;

fortunately, words cannot be killed with rifles.

Solitude of loves sad and pure,

solitude of loves and madness.

(Embraced by sadness)

I am just like you are, wind.

I think, I rebel.

I caress mountains full of aromas and dreams,

of children, of deer...

I sweep away dictatorships and love peace and calm

and behind me, gust of wind,

you come with me to scare them.

And for the farmers and ranchers

you come with me to caress their dreams

and give them the water they were asking for

to confused gods... to gods without sky.

Let me go with you rebellious and cheerful.

Let me go with you, free as the wind.

Let me go with you for in you are my dreams.

Let me go with you...

or my dream will go away.

(Wind let me go with you)

Last night I felt cold and fell out of love a little.

Last night I felt cold and became a poet.

Last night, while my flesh froze

and my soul hid in my body,

I saw how my love for you

was a toy already out of fashion that was worth nothing.

Any dawn they will throw

the old toy of my love into a garbage cart,

and fading into the bitter solitude

it will hear the carter beating his mule

who gives everything for a bit of straw

and, sometimes, rotten grapes.

And I will be there where nothing is worth anything

until one day a sweet little gypsy girl,

with snot and freckles on her face,

wipes with her greasy sleeve

the dirt that society stuck to my soul;

and I will become a shiny toy of love and joy.

What does it matter if you deceive me if you smile at me later!

What does it matter to be a poet or garbage!

Last night I felt cold in body and soul...

Last night I felt cold and my freedom of love froze.

(Toy of love)

In the shadow of my shadow

I am making myself a hat;

hat of long straws

that I have picked up from the ground.

I will make it with a wide brim,

that almost reaches the sky

so many times not to see

the things I don't want to see.

I don't want to see injustices or miseries;

I don't want to see soldiers or princesses;

I don't want to see dictatorships or poverty;

I don't want to see rich religions, nor queens.

I only want to see the poor without misery;

the rich without money naked on this earth;

infinite hearts united by love

and united against war.

In the shadow of my shadow

I am making myself a hat

but I will stop making it

to fight with two eggs.

(In the shadow of my shadow)

What does your poison have that takes my life away with just a kiss

and takes me to the moon and offers me the drug that cures everything?

Blessed dependency; invisible chain that ties me to life,

and in dark moments a pat on the back and I feel more secure.

If you kiss me, my ears turn red.

Put on a sad face because you know I'll do whatever you want.

Full moon eyes: your gaze is of fire and my body of wax.

you are my verse, pen, paper, and feeling;

the night I, and you the moon; you the beer and I the foam.

If you kiss me, my ears turn red.

My soul is hoarse from loving you

in this full solitude that suffocates me;

my eyes are full of light from imagining you

and my eyes are blind from not seeing you;

my body is abandoned to abandonment

and my body is shivering from not being able to touch you;

my voice is rough from talking to so many people

and my voice is precious from singing to you;

my hands are cracked from the frost

and my hands are soft from caressing you in the sky;

I have solitude, light, joy, sadness,

rebellions, love, smiles, and tears...

And I also have you, precious,

walking through my veins with my blood.

(Red Ears)

I wish my voice were so strong

that sometimes it would echo in the mountains

and you would hear the socially-asleep minds

the words of love from my throat.

Open your arms, your mind and share

because they only taught you hatred and greed

and I want us all as brothers

to share loves, tears, and smiles.

As a child, they imposed customs on me

they educated me to be a wealthy man

but now I prefer to be an Indian

than an important lawyer.

We must leave the tarred social path

because on it our hooves get stuck

we must fly free to the sun and the wind

sharing the love you have inside.

(Love, love, love and expand the soul).

Solitude is not so alone...

Don't you see it never abandons me!

Like a storm that rips off roofs;

I don't know who took from me what was never given.

I look out the window, it's always raining

and in my old radio, "Winter Sun" is playing.

Lost on the path between love and hate;

as close to heaven as to the devil...

What happened that it doesn't want to come out?

- A little ray of sun to help me live.

What happened? Has it forgotten about me?

- And I feel sad if the sky is gray.

Give me seagull wing liquor:

I want to fly, get wet with the waves.

Give me rabbit ear liquor

that I want to hear your voice even if you're far away.

Come on, Manolillo, lend me the hat;

the one with the wide brim that reaches the sky.

Put it upside down, fill it with verses;

let them fly, let the wind distribute them!

What happened that it doesn't want to come out?

- A little ray of sun to help me live.

What happened? Has it forgotten about me?

- And I feel sad if the sky is gray.

(If the sky is gray)

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