If for a moment God would forget that I am a rag doll and give me a
scrap of life, possibly I would not say everything that I think, but I
would definitely think everything that I say.
I would value things not for how much they are worth but rather for what they mean.
I would sleep little, dream more. I know that for each minute that we close our eyes we lose sixty seconds of light.
I would walk when the others loiter; I would awaken when the others sleep.
I would listen when the others speak, and how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream.
If God would bestow on me a scrap of life, I would dress simply, I would
throw myself flat under the sun, exposing not only my body but also my
soul.
My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hatred on ice and wait for
the sun to come out. With a dream of Van Gogh I would paint on the stars
a poem by Benedetti, and a song by Serrat would be my serenade to the
moon.
With my tears I would water the roses, to feel the pain of their thorns
and the incarnated kiss of their petals...My God, if I only had a scrap
of life...
I wouldn't let a single day go by without saying to people I love, that I love them.
I would convince each woman or man that they are my favourites and I would live in love with love.
I would prove to the men how mistaken they are in thinking that they no
longer fall in love when they grow old--not knowing that they grow old
when they stop falling in love. To a child I would give wings, but I
would let him learn how to fly by himself. To the old I would teach that
death comes not with old age but with forgetting. I have learned so
much from you men....
I have learned that everybody wants to live at the top of the mountain
without realizing that true happiness lies in the way we climb the
slope.
I have learned that when a newborn first squeezes his father's finger in his tiny fist, he has caught him forever.
I have learned that a man only has the right to look down on another man
when it is to help him to stand up. I have learned so many things from
you, but in the end most of it will be no use because when they put me
inside that suitcase, unfortunately I will be dying.
translated by Matthew Taylor and Rosa Arelis Taylor
