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| Antonio Machado Spanish poet 1875–1939 | ||
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Arguably Spain’s most esteemed modern poet, Antonio Machado y Ruiz was part of the intellectual movement known as the “Generation of 1898,” which included, among others, the philosopher Ortega y Gasset and the writer Miguel de Unamuno. The group sought the political and cultural revitalization of Spain after the country’s long historical decline, culminating with the economic and social crisis following defeat in the Spanish-American War. Less political than some in the movement, Machado’s poetry was characterized by philosophical melancholy, often evoking the stony landscapes and diminished glories of his homeland. “A poet of time and memory,” one critic has called him. Machado was born on his family’s estate in Seville in 1875 and raised in Madrid. When his father’s unexpected death plunged the family in dire financial straits, Antonio and his older brother, the dramatist Manuel Machado, turned to writing and acting for a living. In 1899 the two brothers traveled to Paris, the cultural mecca of the day, where they studied, worked as translators, and met such literarati as Ruben Dario and Oscar Wilde. Here Machado discovered modernism and the French symbolist poetry that would visibly influence his work in the years to come. After moving back to Spain, Machado settled in Castile, where the barren landscape, steeped in local legend, formed the backdrop for his first collection of poems, Soledades (1903). Somber and introspective, the poems’ lyrical reflections on nature and the soul captured a national sense of loss. They instantly established their author as one of Spain’s leading voices. Similar themes appeared in Compos de Castilla (1912), Machado’s best known work. These poems once again link metaphysical themes to the landscape of Castile. They also include more explicitly political themes, observations on literary friendships, and a final group of poems devoted to Machado’s young wife Leonora, who had died tragically at age 21, just five years after their marriage. The loss affected Machado deeply and was a topic he returned to often in his work. A lifelong student of philosophy, Machado turned increasingly in his later years to shorter, aphoristic poems or “proverbs” with philosophical themes and a cryptic tone sometimes likened to Zen koans. For many readers, especially outside of Spain, these are Machado’s signature works, among them his famous and variously translated, “Traveler, there are no roads…” Wayfarer, the road Is your footsteps, nothing else. Wayfarer, there is no road You open it as you walk it. The walking opens the road And when you turn your eyes back You see the path you’ll never Walk again. Wayfarer, there is no road, But wakes on the sea. Though he constantly revised work and his literary output was never large, Machado also produced essays, philosophical papers, and speeches, as well as several plays in collaboration with his brother Manuel. The outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936 caused a painful rift between the brothers, Manuel siding with Franco and the fascists, Antonio with the leftist republic. As violence spread and Franco’s troops advanced, Antonio relocated from Madrid to Barcelona, then fled with his mother and a stream of refugees across the border to France. After a harsh journey on foot through the Pyrenees, Machado died in the French village of Collioure; his mother followed him to the grave three days later. Selected English Editions by Antonio Machado
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