How Can I Describe This to You? (Cómo hacer para darte una idea)

Music piece by:
Sergio Vesely
Testimony by:
Sergio Vesely
Experience in:
Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976

This is one of two songs I wrote in prison for my beloved Graciela. In the song I tried to draw her closer to me, describing my everyday world and my experience of life as a captive.


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Published on: 22 June 2015

How can I describe to you
this sad ferrous universe
with its eternal cold nights
shaken by sickened screams
and the desert, the desert of love
where I write you these verses.

How can I describe to you
the hours I have spent alone,
during the endless circles
that my feet draw in the cell
and the absurdity, the absurdity of believing
that I am still part of your kingdom.

How can I describe to you
the hatred that invades my dreams,
the battles I engage in by day
against the whip of impatience
and the delirium, the delirium that climbs
the concrete shadow.

How to finally make it possible
for your mind to see this small space,
so you can imagine
where I sleep every day
and you stay, and you stay a while
by my side and in silence.


Related testimonies:

  • Lament for the Death of Augusto the Dog (Lamento a la muerte del perro Augusto)  Sergio Vesely, Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975

    Augusto the dog (not to be confused with the journalist Augusto Olivares, affectionately nicknamed 'Augusto the Dog', who was murdered in the Presidential Palace on 11 September 1973), was the mascot of the political prisoners held at the Ritoque concentration camp, and accompanied his master when the military junta decided to close that prison and transfer the inmates to the neighbouring Puchuncaví concentration camp.

  • Ode to Joy (Himno a la alegría)  Luis Madariaga, Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1974 - 1976

    In prison, we would sing the 'Ode to Joy' when a comrade was released or sent to exile.

  • Today Was Visitors’ Day (Hoy fue día de visitas)  Sergio Vesely, Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976

    Visitors’ day was an exceptional day that broke the monotonous routine of all the other days of the week.

  • Song of a Middle-Class Man (Canción de un hombre medio)  Sergio Vesely, Cárcel de Valparaíso, 1976

    In our political discussions, we always spoke disdainfully of the middle class. In the view of the Marxist ideologues in prison, that sector of society supported the dictatorship and it was necessary to reverse that trend.

  • Priests and Soldiers (Curas y milicos)  Sergio Vesely, Campamento de Prisioneros Melinka, Puchuncaví, 1975

    I don’t want to exaggerate but Camp Melinka became not only a factory that produced handicrafts and a performance hall but also a university.

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