| Status | Hoax | | Comments | Recently, the text of a poem called "La marioneta" has been passed around the Internet, as well as run in several Latin American newspapers. Attributed to García Márquez and believed to be a "farewell letter" to his friends, it was uncovered to really be the work of a ventriloquist named Johnny Welch. | | Description | A GENIUS BIDS FAREWELL
Gabriel Garcia Marquez has retired from public life due to health
reasons: cancer of the lymphnodes. It seems that it is getting
worse.
He has sent a farewell letter to his friends, and thanks to the
Internet it is spreading. This short text, written by one of the
most brilliant Latin Americans in recent times, is truly moving.
"If for an instant God were to forget that I am a rag doll and gifted
me with a piece of life, possibly I wouldn't say all that I think,
but rather I would think of all that I say. I would value things, not for
their worth but for what they mean. I would sleep little, dream
more,understanding that for each minute we close our eyes we lose
sixty seconds of light.
"I would walk when others hold back, I would wake when others sleep.
"I would listen when others talk, and how I would enjoy a good
chocolate ice cream! If God were to give me a piece of life, I would
dress simply, throw myself face first into the sun, baring not only
my body but also my soul. My God, if I had a heart, I would write my
hate on ice, and wait for the sun to show.. Over the stars I would paint
with a Van Gogh dream a Benedetti poem, and a Serrat song would be
the serenade I'd offer to the moon. With my tears I would water roses, to
feel the pain of their thorns, and the red kiss of their petals...
"My god, if I had a piece of life... I wouldn't let a single day pass
without telling the people I love that I love them. I would convince
each woman and each man that they are my favorites, and I would live
in love with love. I would show men how very wrong they are to think
that they cease to be in love when they grow old, not knowing that they
grow old when they cease to be in love! To a child I shall give wings, but
I shall let him learn to fly on his own. I would teach the old that
death does not come with old age, but with forgetting. So much have I
learned from you, oh men...
"I have learned that everyone wants to live on the peak of the
mountain, without knowing that real happiness is in how it is scaled.
I have learned that when a newborn child squeezes for the first time
with his tiny fist his father's finger, he has him trapped forever. I
have learned that a man has the right to look down on another only
when he has to help the other get to his feet. From you I have learned
so many things, but in truth they won't be of much use, for when I
keep them within this suitcase, unhappily shall I be dying."
GABRIEL GARCIA MARQUEZ
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