He andado muchos caminos

Antonio Machado(1875–1939)

Soledades, 1907

He andado muchos caminos,he abierto muchas veredas,he navegado en cien maresy he atracado en cien riberas.

En todas partes he vistocaravanas de tristezas,soberbios y melancólicosborrachos de sombra negra,

y pedantones al pañoque miran, callan y piensanque saben, porque no bebenel vino de las tabernas.

Mala gente que caminay va apestando la tierra...

Y en todas partes he vistogentes que danzan o juegan,cuando pueden, y laboransus cuatro palmos de tierra.

Nunca, si llegan a un sitio,preguntan adonde llegan.Cuando caminan, cabalgana lomos de muía vieja,

y no conocen la prisani aun en los días de fiesta.Donde hay vino, beben vino,donde no hay vino, agua fresca.

Son buenas gentes que viven,laboran, pasan y sueñan,y en un día como tantos,descansan bajo la tierra.

From Soledades, galerías y otros poemas (1907), via the Spanish Wikisource transcription. No emendation was made.

Public domainThis poem is in the public domain. You may read it, copy it, recite it and publish it without asking anyone.

About the poem

This is one of Machado's early poems, from his book Soledades (1907). The speaker has travelled many roads and many seas, and everywhere has seen two kinds of people: the proud and melancholy who get drunk and look down on others, and the «good people» who live, work, dream and keep quiet.

Without raising its voice, the poem takes the side of the second. It ends on a serene, undramatic image: those good people who, when the day comes, rest «beneath the earth». It is the early Machado, already with his grave tone and his tenderness for humble life.

The verse is kept in Spanish. Translating it in passing would replace the work with a paraphrase of it.