Verses for the departure of a friend
 
 
We were born in the month of October, you and I.
It is said that those born in this month of Scorpio show an apparently tough and strict character. However, when the date arrived to celebrate our birthdays, we greeted each other with a lot of respect and affection. Ever since that day you arrived from the University of Hull, we hugged each other and talked about the topic of exile.
We knew how to distinguish and appreciate the tremendous solidarity of the English people. They opened their doors to us. We took advantage of the opportunity that the organizations Academics for Chile and World University Service gave us. With that support, many years ago, we initiated our careers as researchers in the University of Southampton. As a sociologist, a brilliant researcher, you, dear Guillermo, like a good Scorpio, successfully uncovered the dictators of the seventies, Africa at that time and General Pinochet.
Despite our signs of the zodiac, we tolerated each other with affection and without poison, a sign of our faithful friendship. We two Scorpios became warm, close friends. One of these greetings was a little book by the famous Spanish classical poet, Jorge Manrique, his famous “Verses for the death of his father”, which we remember now, on the occasion of the departure of a good friend.
 
 
Our lives are the rivers
 
That flow into the sea
 
__And terminate;
 
That's where the rulers go—
 
They meet their end and they
 
__Disintegrate;
 
Just as the rivers large,
 
The medium and the small
 
__Go to the sea,
 
We all arrive as one,
 
As workers in the field
 
__Or the rich.
 
Finally, Guillermo, I would like to recall the humour that you always showed, with this poem:
When passing
a door-post,
watch as you walk on,
inspect as you enter.
It is uncertain
where enemies lurk
or crouch in a dark corner.