The gaucho Martín Fierro
The Third Canto
English versión of José Hernández’s poem —
José Hernández’s “El gaucho Martín Fierro” is a classic epic poem, divided into two parts, published in 1872 and 1879. It tells the story of Martín Fierro, a rural Argentine man, who is forced to flee his home and live as a fugitive due to a draft(forced recruitment for war) it describes the injustice and mistreatment of the gauchos by society and government, and also it celebrates their way of life and values. This poem is widely considered one of the most significant literary works in Argentina and is deeply ingrained in the country’s cultural heritage.
In this presentation, I will be providing a detailed explanation of the first part of the poem, referred to as “The departure of Martín Fierro.” The complete poem can be accessed through the following link:
The departure of Martín Fierro
From this canto, Fierro begins to tell his own story. The poem will begin to reveal its narrative character, something that is characteristic of Gaucho poetry as a literary genre.
Ah, happy was I ’neath my ‘rancho’s’ roof,
As the bird in its feathered nest;
My heart rose up with a father’s pride,
As I watched my boys with the rangers ride;
Alas, of all by an evil chance,
In a day I was dispossessed.
Without ever abandoning octosyllabic verse, we begin to recognize episodes or small narrative units. The first of these episodes is the draft, which surprises Fierro at the ‘pulpería’ while he was having fun with other gauchos, at a dance, and which determines the beginning of his misfortune.
And once at a merry gathering,
I was warm and going strong,
When all of a sudden there and then,
The Justice came with a troop of men,
And the party carne to a sudden end;
For they took the lot along.
The draft, along with the account of life in the fort, will serve for Fierro to denounce the injustice and arbitrariness of the State as well as its ineffectiveness for border protection.
Sarmiento in his Facundo also composes a portrait about the figure of the Justice of the Peace that in Hernandez’s poem determines the fall from grace of the gaucho Martin Fierro.
To finish with this third canto, we can point out the representation that the author of the work offers of two other historical actors: one is the immigrant and the other is the indian. On the immigrant, Hernandez points out his clumsiness and cowardice:
A gringo hurdy-gurdy man,
With a dancing monkey there,
Was doing his bit to help the fun;
They roped him too, though he tried to run;
A big soft-looking fellow was he, —
And he cried for sheer despair.
And an English digger of ditches too,
That had dodged the draft before,
By telling the Justice, I understand,
That he carne from Inca-la-Perra’ land, —
He took to his heels and got to the hills
By the skin of his teeth, no more.
As for the Indian, in the first part of the poem, he recognizes his skill as a rider and his qualities for war. This representation that we read here will change in the second part of the poem.
From the outer wilds on his wiry horse
He takes the trackless way;
He eats the prairie, league on league,
He recks not hunger or fatigue;
The Indian and the ant — these two
Are busy night and day.
At handling the ‘bolas’ there’s nobody else
As the Indian so clever;
When you’re drawing off,& you think he’s through
He’ll send a chance shot after you,
And if it catches you, for sure,
It lays you out forever.
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