Javier Gonzalez-Olaecheawho until last Tuesday served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, participated this Thursday in the change of command ceremony at the Foreign Ministry, in which surprised the audience by opting for an unconventional speech.
LOOK: Javier González-Olaechea attended the Presentation Ceremony of the new foreign minister
The former minister decided not to read a formal speech, but instead chose to recite a short text of his own authorship.
“I am not going to read a traditional speech, which is very appropriate, by the way, and which I will shortly deliver to all those present and, with the permission of the Foreign Minister, will be posted on the Foreign Ministry’s social networks,” he said.
González-Olaechea proceeded to read the poem entitled The Honor of Serving, a text that, according to him, will be incorporated into a collection of poems that has not yet been published.
The honor of serving, poem by Javier González-Olaechea
You could never imagine,
perhaps, not even in your most resounding sleeplessness,
how attached to your homeland,
the meaning of serving so deep.
Believer and stubborn lover of Peru,
You never longed for voluntary exile,
Since you had your stubbornness chained to reason,
listening to what your silence was telling you.
Listen to me, public servant!
I whisper to you like the victorious Roman general,
Remember that those applauses are borrowed,
They make noise, but they are always agitated like the river,
because in its nature brushstrokes collide.
If the winds change,
If the course changes,
If the road is paved
Why wouldn’t moods change?
What never mutates or should mutate,
It is the indelible whisper of your interior,
It is love for your loved ones,
It is your desire to serve,
It is the legacy of honor received,
and it is not a currency in use.
Listen to me, fool,
Don’t stray from your own people,
because through the lived and shared experience, they are all yours,
because the hope of others is no longer foreign to you,
because it is fulfilling your faith as a believer.
And just as service should oblige you,
Even if people don’t forgive you for your differences,
because between public service and honor,
an invaluable communion is founded on iron,
with which you crouch down and prostrate yourself before the Creator.
And remember, stubborn lover of Peru,
that you could not make your identity invisible,
that you couldn’t avoid the glances,
because when caressing your long dreams,
You did not want to hide or corner your identity,
because your dreams also have other owners.
Perhaps without looking for it you woke up,
of a handful whom fortune eludes,
and suddenly you find yourself facing such misfortune,
wondering about so many subtle circumstances today,
and what did you do here?
And you can’t avoid so much questioning,
of various ages and conditions,
that relentless, they pierce your conscience,
for the responsibility you assumed,
full of convictions that you shared without borders.
And suddenly you find yourself face to face again,
and at times your reason becomes clouded,
and you no longer inquire about explanation,
since, by accepting public service,
You have no right to question yourself,
not even at the moment when you wake up from your dream.
And the honor of your parents assails you,
and before such a spirited crowd I remember,
Your being shrinks and even your most vain vanity,
forgetting that the Hellenic poets already then,
They saw him running galloping, spirited and distressed
a white herd, ridden by overwhelming honor.
And suddenly, the return to your life returns,
You say goodbye to your loved ones,
assimilating the evidence,
without spelling out what has been done and what is being done,
in this beautiful house that you opened to the excited public.
So appreciate everyone,
its colonial beauty,
and the great ones who inhabited it
before the scarce flow of your spring,
Here today present before the grey and sad sky
of our steep capital.
And only in this way should we seek to serve,
It is the laborious task of the public servant,
It is to unite two carnations into one and large,
It is the beautiful spring of feeling
what others feel and resent.
My gratitude overwhelms me and my heart shrinks.
I surrender to all public servants
before all the custodians of this tradition,
before my closest collaborators,
and what less, before the three queens
who showered me with their beautiful delivery.
And I surrender even more to my very dear young people,
capable among capable, gentile among gentile,
honest among honest people,
because they reminded him of this gray chest,
that there is no greater honor than serving our Nation.
