The word to cry by Gianni Rodari

Let’s read and listen to this profound poem by the master Gianni Rodari

Let’s read together

One day we will all be happy.
Tears, who will remember them?

Children will discover
in old books
the word “to cry”
and to the teacher in chorus they will ask:
“Madam, what does it mean?
We cannot understand.”

It will be the teacher,
a white-haired old lady
with golden glasses,
and she will tell them:
“Like this and like that.”

The children, then and there,
will not understand.
At home, I bet,
with a sliced onion
they will try and try again
to cry just for spite
and they will have a lot of laughs…

And one day, all in a line,
they will go to visit
the Museum of Tears:
I see them, light and happy,
flowers finding their roots again.

The Museum will not be so sad:
we must not frighten the children.
And besides, the tears of yesterday
will no longer hurt:
their salt has become sweet.

And the old teacher will narrate:
“The tears of a mother without bread…
the tears of an old man without fire…
the tears of a worker without a job…
the tears of a black man whipped
because his skin was dark…”
“And did he say nothing?”
“Was he afraid?”
“He cried only once but he swore:
a second time
I will not cry.”

The children of tomorrow
will see again the tears
of the children of yesterday:
of the barefoot child,
of the hungry child,
of the defenseless child,
of the offended, struck, humiliated child…

Finally, the teacher will narrate:
“One day these tears
became an overwhelming river,
they washed the earth
from continent to continent,
they crashed down like a waterfall:
and thus, thus joy was won.”