El Apellido Nicolas Guillen English Translation Here

Most amateur translators render prestar as "to lend" (as used above). Others use "to borrow" or "to give temporarily." Guillén chooses prestaron deliberately. A gift is permanent. A loan requires return.

📍 "El Apellido" is more than a poem; it is a linguistic reclamation of a stolen past. To help you dive deeper into Guillén's work: El Apellido Nicolas Guillen English Translation

The poem’s most powerful moment comes when Guillén rejects the European surname altogether. In Spanish: Most amateur translators render prestar as "to lend"

The "surname" (apellido) in question is the European last name imposed by Spanish colonizers. Guillén laments that he knows his Spanish father’s name, but the names of his African ancestors—the millions brought as slaves—are lost to history. The poem is a meditation on what it means to carry a borrowed identity while longing for the blood memory that was stolen. A loan requires return

Mi abuelo negro, muerto, con un paliacate al cuello, resbala en el recuerdo... Sus tierras eran una voz perdida y triste, que de su pecho掀起.

Guillén famously writes: "Nací del dolor de África y del llanto de España" (I was born from the pain of Africa and the weeping of Spain). In the English translation, this line loses the alliteration ( dolor...llanto ) but retains the duality.