My personal revenge will be your children's
right to schooling and to flowers.
My personal revenge will be this song
bursting for you with no more fears.
My personal revenge will be to make you see
the goodness in my people's eyes,
implacable in combat always
generous and firm in vistory.
My personal revenge will be to greet you
"Good Morning!" in the streets with no beggars,
when instead of locking you inside
they say, "Don't look so sad"
When you, the torturer,
daren't lift your head.
My personal revenge will be to give you
these hands you once ill-treated
with all their tenderness intact.
Tomas Borge was a leader of the Sandinista Revolutionary Front, imprisoned and tortured in Nicaragua during the struggles of the 1960's and 1970's. After the Nicaraguan revolution in 1979 he became Minister for the Interior, and faced his jailers and torturers in court. Given the freedom to choose the form and severity of punishment, he clearly stated his desired revenge – he chose to forgive them and in the courtroom declared them forgiven.
The above words are the song written by Luis Enrique Meja Godoy based on this redemptive scandal. Advent is a good time to remember events like this. As Harriet Walters said introducing the poem, this "is not wooly wishful thinking from a comfy armchair. It comes from the front line".
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