Like “me contaron” this epigram describes the political activities of the poetic speaker and their relationship to his romantic situation. There is definite progression between the political activities in the prior epigram and this one. “Me contaron” describes a single vague action, -the writing of an article whose contents are unspecified- motivated not by political conscience but by the frustration of a jilted lover. “Yo he repartido” on the other hand describes three very specific political acts: the dissemination of political pamphlets, the public cry of protest whose contents are included “Viva la libertad” and finally a stand taken by the speaker against armed guards. Unlike “me contaron” in which an isolated political act is undertaken out of purely emotional motives, in “yo he repartido” these acts are common occurrences which the poetic speaker undertakes without fear or trepidation. The sense, in this epigram, is that the poet is a revolutionary whose love experience is set up in contrast to his political activities rather than a jilted lover “playing” revolutionary in order to distract himself from emotional matters.
The epigram is set up as a contrast between the poetic speaker’s love and political experience with three lines addressing the former, and two lines addressing the later. The former produces the type of emotional charge which the latter lacks. The poet is able to confront the agents of Somoza without fear, but passing the house of his beloved causes him to “turn pale” while the gaze of his beloved causes him to shake. This contrast of emotional states, besides echoing the love/war theme of the classical epigram is also reminiscent of Spanish Renaissance poetry, in particular the sonnets of Garcilaso de la Vega, in which the warrior poet contrasts his strength in battle with his weakness before the gaze of the beloved. Indeed, way in which the binary conditions are laid out reflects somewhat the Petrarchan sonnet form which Garcilaso originally adapted into the Spanish language, in which an eight line opening is fleshed out by an intense six line conclusion. In this five-line epigram the three-line opening sets the revolutionary scene, while the two line conclusion finishes it, presenting the contrast.
The contrast between the bravery he experiences in his revolutionary activities and the trepidation in his romantic ones also reiterates love’s often difficult and tense relationship with political reality which Rowe describes. Love is a humanizing factor here, but one which leaves the revolutionary vulnerable and introduces the element of contingency and uncertainty into a monolithic and stable public identity. Here love isn’t the banner the revolutionary carries with him into battle, but rather the thing which could get him in trouble, which causes him fear and even dangerous distraction. This is something which Rowe identifies as problematic in “me contaron”. In the earlier epigram, love’s emotional tumultuousness leads the poetic speaker into a reckless action which lands him in prison. Here it leaves him open to fear, a situation which if he is imprisoned could be used against him.
