不 No

    "不"，肯定是，而且也是唯一的能夠拯救被奴役的人們的自由與尊嚴的詞。

    直至十九世紀末期，波多黎各一直是西班牙的殖民地。 由於波多黎各人民的強烈要求，西班牙於1897年批准該島完全自治。可是，第二年在美國與西班牙的戰爭中，美國軍隊佔領了波多黎各，在戰爭結束時，西班牙割讓該島給美國管轄。美國把大陸的文化強加給波多黎各人民，激怒了波多黎各的愛國者，他們抱怨說波多黎各又回到了殖民地時期。1917年該島人民獲得了一些有限的自治權，居民成了美國公民。1948年當地居民獲得選舉地方長官的權利。波多黎各於1952年成了與美國行政上有聯繫的一個島嶼。該島將與美國保持現有的附屬關係或將成為美國的一個州，至今還是個懸而未決的問題。

    喬斯‧迪‧迪戈(1866－1918)是波多黎各的政治家、詩人及政治運動領導人。他經歷過西班牙與美國權力的轉讓，在西班牙統治時期，他曾短暫地在自治政府內閣供職過，後來也曾在美國統治下的殖民地政府中服務。在他的詩歌和演講中，他熱情地捍衛波多黎各的文化和政治獨立。對於任何生活在沒有獲得被統治者同意的政權統治下的人們來說，下面的文章《不》有其深刻的意義。

    強有力的回答"不"像錘擊聲那樣短暫、有力、乾脆，這就是在帝國主義橫行霸道的不幸日子裏該從我們口中憤怒地噴發而出，用以挽救我們民族尊嚴的詞。

    兩三年前，科爾‧托斯泰博士曾寫過一些好文章，說波多黎各人不懂得使用強有力的肯定回答表示抗議，並認為波多黎各人應該學會這樣做。這位學識淵博的博士錯了，因為我們精神上的最大痛苦是易受意志軟弱的影響，不自覺地做出讓步，這就像在勁風面前玫瑰叢可愛地點頭彎腰那般情景一樣。

    的確，贊成、同意這一類的肯定回答推動並解決了許多科學、藝術、哲學、宗教方面的事情，信仰與愛情方面的奇跡，基督的殉難，哥倫布的一生，這些由肯定回答所創造出的奇跡使我們對服從、贊同稱讚不已，認為這是美德，是精神上的昇華。

    可是，在政治進展過程中，在爭取自由的鬥爭中，肯定回答這個副詞幾乎毫無用處，而且還總給人們帶來災難。在所有的語種中，肯定回答都十分溫和，羅曼語系中的肯定回答比起其拉丁語詞源的肯定回答這個詞要更親切、溫柔。拉丁語中的肯定回答"Certe quidem"不如西班牙語、義大利語、葡萄牙語和法語中的肯定回答"si"那麼簡潔和諧。法語中的"si"在最富有情感的情況下取代了"oui"，表示"是的"。"si"在音樂中是音符"7"，是長笛的琶音，烏的顫音，極適用於美妙的音樂、韻律、夢幻和愛情的表達。而要表達抗議、衝動、情感的突然發作、憤怒、詛咒、憎恨這一類像劃火柴點火那樣瞬間爆發的情感，否定回答"No"要比肯定回答適用得多。"No"中的"o"粗魯、嘹亮、熱烈，像怒吼，像給世界造成大亂的深藏在地底下的雷霆萬鈞之力突然爆發。

    自史前原始部落反抗亞洲帝國首領的統治開始，在不願屈從，反抗暴君的鬥爭中，"不"就一直是被壓迫者所使用的詞。它是使人民獲得解放的開端。即使像我們國家這樣，當我們的力量太弱，不足以有效地實現我們的理想時，當我們的革命力量與遠大理想之間差距太大時，"不"，肯定是，而且也是唯一的可以拯救被奴役的人們的自由與尊嚴的詞。

    我們的國家風景秀麗，人民慷慨大方，由於受環境的熏陶，我們不知道如何把"不"字說出口，我們經常不知不覺地被思想中佔主導地位的"是的"所影響，即使在該說"不"的情況下，也用優柔寡斷和藹親切的語言來推誘。總的來說，波多黎各人不說"不"字，也不知道該怎麼啟口。"我們再看看吧。""這件事我再想想。""我過後再決定吧。"當波多黎各人這樣說時，這意味著他不願意這麼做。最多也只能理解為他把"不"和"是的"這兩個詞放在一塊，作為條件句的連詞，使意思模稜兩可，含糊不清。他拿不定主意，他的意願像無處藏身的小鳥在沙漠上無目標地飛著。

我們得學會說"不"，張開嘴，挺起胸，讓發音器官的肌肉緊張起來，拿出勇氣，把"No"中的"o"這個音發出來。這個音也許將在美國和世界上迴響，像轟隆作響的火炮聲在天空中迴盪。

Brief, solid, affirmative as a hammer blow, this is the virile word, which must enflame lips and save the honor of our people, in these unfortunate days of anachronistic imperialism.

      Two or three years ago Doctor Coil y Toste wrote some brilliant paragraphs to demonstrate that Puerto Ricans do not know and ought to know the protest of an energetic affirmation. The knowledgeable doctor was wrong: our greatest moral affliction is an atavistic predisposition to the irreflexive concession and to weakness of will, which bend lovingly, like a rose bush to the sighs of the wind.

      In truth, the affirmation has impelled and resolved great undertakings in science, in art, in philosophy, in religious sentiment: all the miracles of faith and love; the death of Christ and the life of Columbus; saintly wonders of affirmations, which were raised to the glorious summits of the rising spirit, to divine light.

      In political evolution, in the struggle for freedom, the affirmative adverb is almost always useless and always disastrous, so soft in all languages, so sweet in the Romance tongues, superior in this sense to the mother Latin tongue. Certe, quidem do not have the brevity and the harmony of the Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese si and the French si, when the latter substitutes for oui in the most expressive sentences; si in singing, a musical note (B), an arpeggio of the flute, a bird's trill, noble and good for melody, for rhythm, for dreaming, for love: more for the protest and impetus, for the paroxysm, for wrath, for anathema, for dry fulminating hate, like the scratching of a ray of light, the no is far better, the rude, bitter O vast, like a roar, round and ardent like a chaos producer of life through the conflagration of all the forces of the abyss.

      From the almost prehistoric uprisings of savage tribes against chieftains of Asiatic empires, the negative to submission, the protest against the tyrant, the no of the oppressed has been the word, the genesis of the emancipation of peoples: and even when the impotency of the means and the efficacy of the goals, as in our homeland, separate the revolutionary fire from the vision of the ideal, the no must be and is the only saving word of the freedom and dignity of enslaved people.

      We do not know how to say "no," and we are attracted, unconsciously, like a hypnotic suggestion, by the predominant si of the word on thought, of the form on essence－artists and weak and kindly, as we have been made by the beauty and generosity of our land. Never, in general terms, does a Puerto Rican say, nor does he know how to say "no": "We'll see," "I'll study the matter," "I'll decide later"; when a Puerto Rican uses these expressions, it must be understood that he does not want to; at most, he joins the si with the no and with the affirmative and negative adverbs makes a conditional conjunction, ambiguous, nebulous, in which the will fluctuates in the air, like a little bird aimless and shelterless on the flatness of a desert. . . .

      We have to learn to say "no," raise our lips, unburden our chest, put in tension all our vocal muscles and all our will power to fire this o of no, which will resound perhaps in America and the world, and will resound in the heavens with more efficacy than the rolling of cannons.