A Milonga for Manuel Flores
Manuel Flores is going to die, That’s ‘on the money’; Dying is a habit That’s well-known to many. Even so it grieves me To say adiós to being, That thing so familiar, So sweet and enduring. At dawn I gaze at my hands, In my hands the veins there; I gaze but don’t understand It’s as if they were strangers. Tomorrow four bullets will come And oblivion with those four; Thus said the wise Merlin: To die is to have been born. So many things on the road These two eyes have seen! When Christ has judged me Who knows what they’ll see. Manuel Flores is going to die, That’s ‘on the money’; Dying is a habit That’s well-known to many.
A Milonga for Manuel Flores - meaning Summary
Facing Death Without Illusion
The poem gives Manuel Flores a calm, fatalistic voice as he faces an imminent shooting. He accepts death as an ordinary human destiny, yet still feels attachment to the familiar sweetness of being alive. Looking at his own hands, he experiences estrangement from his body and self. The ending widens his private death into questions of oblivion, judgment, and whatever may follow mortality.
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