Unknown Soldier
A love song for an FMLN guerrilla
Hi all,
Thank you for joining me for today’s song, “Unknown Soldier”, by David Rovics. If you’d like to hear the song before you read the background, I’ve included a YouTube video below the article.
Below, you’ll find my interpretation of the lyrics (written in italics). Comments and questions are welcome. For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below. TOEFL (PBT) 450+, Eiken 2, CEFR B1.
An update:
I encourage everyone to read the comments that our generous readers have left on this post. You will find some personal experiences and a link to a video with photography from the time that the song refers to.
(890 words)
Today happens to be St. Valentine’s Day. In the U.S., it is a day on which people give gifts of chocolate or flowers to their partners, and children give Valentine cards to their friends or parents. The theme of the day is love. Are there many kinds of love? As you read about today’s song, think about the different meanings of “for the love of an unknown soldier.”
On his website, David Rovics writes:
[This is] a love song for a guerrilla fighter I never met. I’m just imagining her, really, based only on my knowledge of civil war in El Salvador, and the picture that was on the cover of the New York Times in November, 1989 — during the November Offensive at the time — of a beautiful, camouflage-clad Salvadoran woman with long black hair and an AK-47.
The background
Let’s begin with a bit of background. What is the FMLN?
The FMLN (National Liberation Front) is now an official political party in El Salvador. There was a civil war in that country from 1980-1992. FLMN began as groups that were opposed to the right-wing military government that received training and aid from the U.S. During the war, thousands of people disappeared, tens of thousands of people were killed, and a million became refugees in El Salvador and other countries. In 1992, a peace agreement was signed, and the FLMN became an official political party and started to give up its weapons.
Since then, the FLMN has held seats in the government, and their candidate became president in 2009. However, the party has not been able to make many of the changes it wanted to, mainly because private investors have a lot of control over the economy, the U.S. still has a lot of influence, and the media and political world mostly supports the right.
The song
The song begins with the singer imagining the woman he sees in the New York Times. He imagines her family working hard in the coffee fields that were not his but that belonged to someone else.
I can only guess at where you came from
Did you grow up in the country
Did your father spend his days with a basket on his back
On someone’s farm picking coffee
The singer imagines her father as a kind man who liked to play with her and comfort her.
When he came home from the fields did he throw you on his shoulders
And take you on a pony ride
When you went to bed with no food in your belly
Did he hold you when you cried
How many of your siblings (brothers and sisters) gave in to the hunger
That the healers couldn’t save
In many cultures, there are special people who know how to use natural herbs to cure infections or diseases. They are called healers.
How many bodies did you pull out from the river
For how many did you dig their grave
When did you decide to leave the village
Was it just something that you knew
Was it just time for you to go or did you know
Exactly what you set out to do
The singer wonders whether the woman decided to leave her village because she was hungry or because she wanted to create a society in which people worked on the land for their own benefit and in which there was no hunger.
Every song I’ve written has been a love song
This one is just another
Song for the love of an unknown soldier
The woman became a fighter for the FLMN and fought with her compañeros, her friends who were also fighting. Part of her job as a soldier might have been to make weapons in the places they were hiding.
Did you spend years in the jungle fighting for your freedom
Fighting for your people’s liberation
Did you watch your compañeros die around you
While you held fast to your vocation
Did you make rocket launchers in your rebel hideouts
Like your mother made papusas
A papusa is a handmade Salvadoran dish that is a kind of small pancake, filled with cheese and meat, fried, and served with a cabbage salad and a red sauce.
Did you dream the dreams of La Pasionaria
Or those of Poncho Villa
La Pasionaria was a Republican leader in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Her name was Dolores Ibárruri. In the early 1900s, Pancho Villa was a leader in the Mexican revolution. He fought against injustice and for the rights of the poor. Here, there is a double meaning: to dream about someone or to have a dream of creating a new world.
All I know is that I saw you on a rooftop in the city
In a photo on the cover of the Times
Long black hair flowing down, a machine gun in your hand
In your face was freedom’s ringing chimes
We often say “the bells of freedom are ringing”. “Chimes” is another way to say bells. Here, the songwriter says that he could see the hope of freedom in the woman’s face in the photo.
Looking at your picture, one of a thousand killed that day
In a moment, I could feel that my heart grew
And in all the trials (hard times) of my life, you know
I can only hope to be as beautiful as you
Questions:
Is Valentine’s Day celebrated in your culture? if so, how?
What do you think the phrase for the love of an unknown soldier means? It is the same, or could there be more than one meaning?
Vocabulary
guerilla ゲリラ
offensive 攻撃
camouflage-clad 迷彩服(着ている)
aid 援助
refugee 難民
candidate 候補者
investor 投資家
influence 影響
comfort 気遣う
belly 腹
sibling 兄弟
give in to に屈服する
grave 墓
benefit 利点
liberation 解放
vocation 職業
rocket launcher ロケット弾発射機
rebel 反逆者
hideout 隠れ家
injustice 不正
trial 試練
Sources
Encyclopædia Britannica, inc. (2024, February 7). Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front. Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Farabundo-Marti-National-Liberation-Front
Young, K. “El Salvador’s FMLN and the Constraints on Leftist Government.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics. 2019. https://oxfordre.com/politics/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228637.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228637-e-1768 Accessed 11 February 2024.
“Unknown Soldier” appears on the 2005 CD, For the Moment. Learn more at: https://www.davidrovics.com/songbook/unknown-soldier/
Recipe for pupusas: https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/143644/pupusas/
Learn more about the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939):
This meant a lot to me. I took a number of photos of combatants during the civil war when I worked there as a journalist. I put some together in this YouTube presentation:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2V-46QlZJo&pp=ygUSRk1MTiAod2Fyd2ljayBmcnkp
A good reminder for any writer on Valentines Day: "Every song I've ever written has been a love song. / This is just another song for the love of an unknown soldier."