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Antonio Machado (1875?1939) is Spain?s master poet, the explorer of dream and landscape, and of consciousness below language. Widely regarded as the greatest twentieth century poet who wrote in Spanish, Machado?like his contemporary Rilke?is intensely introspective and meditative. In this collection, the unparalleled translator Willis Barnstone, returns to the poet with whom he first started his distinguished career, offering a new bilingual edition which provides a sweeping assessment of Machado?s work. In addition, Border of a Dream includes a reminiscence by Nobel Laureate Juan Ramon Jimenez and a foreword by John Dos Passos.

from "Proverbs and Songs"

Absolute faith. We neither are nor will be.
Our whole life is borrowed
We brought nothing. With nothing we leave.
*
You say nothing is created?
Don?t worry. With clay
of the earth make a cup
so your brother can drink.

Customer Reviews (3)

Reading is Believing
What an awesomely refreshing book of poems.Exhilarating and scenic Machado's writing is easy to connect with and explore.Refreshingly alive his words illustrate thoughts like no other.What a great read! If you have ever been a fan of poetry you should really check this book out.

Wonderful poetry.
I don't usually read poetry however I'd hear so much about Antonio Machado I thought I give it a try.It was well worth it because I love his work and I feel that I have finally found a poet I can understand and realate to.Although his writing makes me feel good inside - its not because its cheerful writing.It really makes me feel like I'm outside on a sunny, cool, autumn, afternoon pondering my life. It is simple writing in the words, yet creates a deeply introspective, sad, lonely feeling inside my heart - but in a wonderfully meaning way.Now I want to go to Spain, to the places where Antonio lived and wrote, and roam the countryside seeing the places that formed his sights to life.

Delving Deeper into the Dream Below the Sun
Antonio Machado is one of the world's greatest poets.This new addition to the slowly growing opus of Machado in English is the largest yet published, and the closest to a "Collected Poems" that we are likely to have for some time to come.(Might Mr. Barnstone be persuaded to put together a Collected Poems of Antonio Machado?)I believe there are certain felicitous pairings of poets and translators, and that the pairing of Willis Barnstone with Machado is just such a case.Mr. Barnstone's earlier volume, The Dream Below The Sun, (The Crossing Press,1981), was my first introduction to Machado's "spare, luminous, profound" poems, and so his translations have been imprinted upon my psyche as "Machado in English."I have read other translations of Machado's work, but none have yet surpassed Mr. Barnstone's.
Thisselection of Machado's work incorporates the 150 poems from The Dream Below The Sun, the sonnets included in Six Masters of The Spanish Sonnet, an expanded version of the evocative, highly readable and informative essay from that volume as an introduction, and about eighty-five new poems.The crowning addition here is Mr. Barnstone's inclusion of the long ballad "The Land of Alvargonzález," the longest single sustained poem that Machado wrote, presented here for the second time in English (the first translation was published in 1982 in the U.K. by Dennis Doyle).Though Mr. Barnstone rhymes in many of the translations (no mean feat, as I know from personal experience), or uses assonance to help capture the musical quality so integral to Machado's work, in this longer piece he has chosen a kind of blank ballad verse that reads with the fluency, directness and starkness of the original.Like many "folk ballads," the poem deals with greed, jealousy, murder (in this case: particide) and the supernatural force of a justice which metes out an appropriately grim punishment for the evildoers.
Mr. Barnstone has also included fuller translations of long sequences that Machado titled "Proverbs and Songs" (there are two different ones with this title: one from Fields of Castilla, 1907-1917, and another from New Songs, 1917-1930), plus numerous others featured in selected form in the earlier Crossing Press volume, and a few new ones.These sequences are full of intensely lucid perceptions, aphoristic incisiveness, paradoxical wisdom and sharp lyrical beauty.Their short, trenchant and suggestive nature brings many of them close to Japanese haikus in quality-certainly some of the closest produced by any major European poet.
I recommend this generous, beautiful volume to anyone who seeks a poetry that sings deeply and resonantly while imparting a heartfelt and soul-deep wisdom about the paradox of being alive as a human being.You will find yourself returning to these poems over and over again, as I have done. ... Read more

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Antonio Machado is widely regarded as the greatest twentieth century Spanish poet. Machado's poetry is like his contemporary Rilke: it iis intensely introspective and meditative. In this collection, we offer a collection of some of his poems in Spanish, which hopefully provide an assessment of Machado's work. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Mi infancia son recuerdos...
Antonio Machado es uno de los grandes poetas españoles del siglo XX que fue popularizado por las musicalizaciones de Joan Manuel Serrat.
Releer esta selección de poemas fue recordar mi infancia, aunque no la de un patio de Sevilla.
Siento que fuese sólo una selección y no la obra completa. ... Read more

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A new translation of poetry that enhances the ordinary. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A sound introduction
Lorca is often the first poet to come to North American minds when asked about Spanish poetry. Lorca's life is more dramatic, his intensity, his homosexuality, his death is by far more dramatic.

Antonio Machado is a big scruffier in image. Widowed before middle-age, Machado never quite recovered from the loss of his wife. He was a wanderer, a tutor, someone who might sit alone and calmly so at a cafe table, the ends of his pants a little worse for wear. He was drawn to philosophy and his poetry has a mystical quality to it. Yet his poems are like the songs of his Spanish youth. He is both outsider and native to the Spain that fills his poetry.

I found this translation to be a good introduction but not exceptional. Like the figure of Machado, the translations were a bit 'scruffy' at times. I recommend Willis Barnstone's larger tome. Reading Bly's renditions, I found the poems quite listless and sometimes dull - many had lost their gleam. In Barnstone's hands, I found the poems took on a deeper life. I am presently studying Spanish and will hopefully be able to read Machado in the original.

This is a good place to begin, but not the English zenith of Machado translations. Lorca has been well-serviced in English. I would like to see the same for Machado.

simply the best translation
After reading this translation of the great poet Antonio Machado I was changed.I feel that Robert Bly's translations were prefect and captured the essence of the poem by carrying over the emotions only the europeans know into each word.The poems are tender and carry many meanings as you read them over and over.It's the best translation yet by the master Robert Bly.

Machado ill-served by ubiquitous Bly
Bly deserves credit for introducing Spanish poetry to the American audience back in the 1950s and 1960s. Machado is a wonderful poet. Unfortunately, Bly is not a terribly good translator, and the result is amismatch.

Poor translation or new creation?
The charitable view is that Mr. Bly has attempted to translate the feeling of these poems, rather than the sense.The result is completely new poems loosely based on Machado's original.

Sadly, that is not my own view.Initially, in fact, my only thought was simply that the man is a terribletranslator.Apparently Mr. Bly is himself a poet, which leads one to thinkthat he has taken some liberties in "improving" on the Spanishoriginal.He also has published translations from a large number ofdifferent languages.Perhaps he is a gifted linguist; perhaps (my ownsuspicion) he learns only enough of each language to make a stab attranslation. Certainly THIS collection is a tremendous disappointment,and I am sad that some may come to Machado's excellent poems only in thissadly altered form.My own Spanish is good, but Machado uses many oldwords, and I had hoped for an expert translation.In this case, however, Iwill have to make do with a good Spanish only volume of Machado and marginnotes made with the help of a dictionary.Maybe Mr. Bly's publisher willconsider publishing my home grown version.

Beautiful, deeply moving poetry
Machado is one of Spain's greatest poets, and this collection includes some of his finest work.But amazon.com should get his name right: on most of the title bars, it's spelled MacHado, as if he were a Scot.He wasn't. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Antonio Machado
His major work in one book.Some interesting facts about his life that was worth reading. ... Read more

Product Description

Regarded by many as the finest poet of twentieth-century Spain, Antonio Machado y Ruiz (1875-1939) is not well known outside the Spanish-speaking world. This volume will introduce him to Anglo-American readers, enabling them to experience at first hand the subtle nuances of his verse. Some two hundred fifty poems in Spanish, drawn from Machado's entire oeuvre, are accompanied on facing pages by sensitive and beautifully fluent translations which render the originals accessible to the mind and the ear.

Mr. Trueblood annotates the individual poems, placing them in context and illuminating their allusions and undertones. In addition, he provides a substantial biographical and critical Introduction. This gives an overview of Machado's life, as a poet and teacher and wide-ranging commentator on cultural, political, and social affairs. (Forced into exile at the end of the Civil War, he crossed the Pyrenees on foot and died a month later.) The Introduction also discusses the qualities of Machado's predominantly quiet and reflective verse, as well as the development of the thought of this major poet.

Customer Reviews (3)

Translation is too literate and loses poetic power
Having much admired Machado in different anthologies and translations (by Robert Bly) I was left very disappointed with this translation - it attempts to follow the Spanish too closely and loses a lot of poetic force. Some poems fall completely flat because of the unfortunate translation - in fact I barely recognized a poem I absoluely love: "Rainbow at Night" compare the Robert Bly translation with Alan Trueblood's if you ever get a chance and you'll know what I mean.

On the other hand if you know Spanish this is a good volume.

Antonio Machado-Selected Poems
I bought this collection of Machado's poems after enjoying "Last Night I Had a Dream" from a different anthology.This edition has both the Spanish and the English translation on facing pages, and knowing very little Spanish, I had to read them in English.Machado's poems are achingly beautiful when he writes of his native Castile in Spain; I can't judge how good the translation is to the original, but the poems are certainly beautiful in English.Selections from his proverbs require quite a bit of reflection, and here I felt at a distinct loss at not being able to read the Spanish.This collection contains poems from throughout his career, so the reader can see where his feelings changed or remained constant over time.

Pain and peace
Machado was perhaps the most "poetic" among all the poets from Spain's "Generation of 98" movement. His are simple poems of love, the countryside, clouds, mountains, rivers, about the absence of Leonor, his beloved wife, who died early. This is the Spain which suffers in silence, without the tormented and exhalted screams of other poets, like Leon Felipe. The small towns and cities where Machado spent most of his life come alive in his easy, lucid verses. As said before, the absence of Leonor covers his poetry with the longing of persons, places and things long gone. Not experimental, urban, or visionary poetry: only the intelligent reflections of the poet on his surroundings, past and present. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

la cumbre poetica de A. Machado
"Campos de Castilla se considera la obra cumbre de Antonio Machado. Publicada en 1912, poco antes de morir su esposa Leonor, y ampliada sucesivas veces con nuevos poemas, expone las meditaciones del hombre sobre lo "eterno humano": domina en la obra lo que se denominan "cuadros costumbristas", cuadros de paisajes y de gentes, meditaciones sobre la soledad, lo adusto del paisaje, el pasado efímero y la muerte.

El paisaje aparece recogido unas veces de forma objetiva, sin artificios -A orillas del Duero-, y a veces lo descubrimos con una intención oculta bajo las descripciones de Castilla, que nos sugieren la preocupación del poeta sobre temas tales como la patria o la soledad... El mañana efímero, Una España joven... temas propios de la Generación del 98, a la que no pertenecía "de facto", pero de la que declarará: "Mi relación con aquellos hombres [...] es la de un discípulo con sus maestros..."

El poema se divide en dos partes temáticas bien definidas; la primera parte (versos 1-25) se caracteriza por la ausencia de verbos predicativos, se trata entonces de un grupo de versos de verbo nominativo y que se caracterizan por ser puramente descriptivos, en este caso la esencia de Castilla; en la segunda parte (versos 26-52) tenemos ya verbos predicativos y entonces la descripción pura del paisaje pasa a la narrativa, interpelando incluso a los elementos del paisaje (versos 31-32).

Las descripciones paisajísticas comienzan de lo general a lo particular, con la "Primavera soriana" del párrafo primero; continuamos con "¡Campillo amarillento... Pradera ..." del párrafo segundo; "... de tierra dura y fría/donde apuntan centenos y trigales...); (y otra vez roca y roca). Y continuamos con dos interpelaciones a Castilla que acentúan el clímax descriptivo final de la primera parte.

En la segunda parte, caracterizada por el elemento narrativo, comenzamos de nuevo con una descripción que comienza por lo general para finalizar con lo particular: verso 26 "Era una tarde, cuando el campo huía/ del sol..."; del cielo el porta pasa a describir los cerros verso 35 "Entre cerros de plomo y de ceniza..."; de ahí al puenteversos 38-39 "iba. a embestir los ocho tajamares / del puente el padre río"; y de ahí a los ríos que surcan la tierra de Castilla verso 40 "que surca de Castilla el yermo frío".

extractado de "realidad literaria". Antonio Machado es una excelente lectura poetica, se los recomiendo animosamente.

Para disfrutar de un conjunto de extraordinaria poesia sensible y espiritual, escrita por maestros de la literatura hispana, vea: Pulpito y Poesia: Recursos poeticos para la predicacion, la ensenanza y la devocion espiritual ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (6)

Excellent, but not quite perfect
This collection of Spanish sonnets is an excellent book. The selections are in general difficult to argue with. I only question whether it makes sense to place Borges (who was, in truth, more innovative as a prose-writer than as a poet) in the same category of merit as geniuses like Quevedo and Lorca. The fact that Barnstone personally knew Borges quite well makes this seem a little suspicious to me. Nonetheless, the sonnets included by Borges are quite well-crafted and fully deserve to be read and re-read.

As for the actual quality of the translations, it seems rather uneven. Barnstone, like other verse-translators who are also poets, faces the Sisyphean task of trying to bend and mould his own voice and verve to fit those of the poet he is translating. The fact that the six poets represented in this volume have very different voices renders the translations particularly vulnerable to comparison.

Unfortunately, the six poets in translation end up sounding a little too similar to each other. What's more, they all sound a little like Barnstone. Quevedo suffers particularly badly in this regard. Here, by way of an example, is one of Quevedo's sonnets followed by Barnstone's translation.


Enseña Cómo Todas Las Cosas Avisan de la Muerte

Miré los muros de la patria mía,
si un tiempo fuertes, ya desmoronados,
de la carrera de la edad cansados,
por quien caduca ya su valentía.
Salíme al campo; vi que el sol bebía
los arroyos del hielo desatados,
y del monte quejosos los ganados,
que con sombras hurtó su luz al día.
Entré en mi casa; vi que, amancillada,
de anciana habitación era despojos;
mi báculo, más corvo y menos fuerte.
Vencida de la edad sentí mi espada,
y no hallé cosa en que poner los ojos
que no fuese recuerdo de la muerte.


He Shows How All Things Warn of Death

I gazed upon my country's tottering walls,
one day grandiose, now rubble on the ground,
worn out by vicious time, only renowned
for weakness in a land where courage fails.
I went into the fields. I saw the sun
drinking the springs just melted from the ice,
and cattle moaning as the forests climb
against the thinning day, now overrun
with shade. I went into my house. I saw
my old room yellowed with with the sickening breath
of age, my cane flimsier than before.
I felt my sword coffined in rust, and walked
about, and everything I looked at bore
a warning of the wasted gaze of death.


First of all, props to Barnstone for knowing that, in Renaissance Spanish, "monte" meant not only "hill" but also "forest." If you know Spanish, you'll notice the great liberties and compromises of image and diction that Barnstone has taken. There's nothing particularly wrong or unusual about this in a poetic, non-literal translation. It's to be expected. However, much of it does not sound at all like Quevedo or, for that matter, *any* Baroque Spanish poet.The half-dozen half-rhymes, though common in modern English poetry, sound peculiar here in a poem supposed to represent classical forms.

Even more jarring, though, is the enjambment of lines 8 and 9. The 9th line traditionally marks the *volta* or "turning point" of the classical European sonnet. In Quevedo's original, the first 8 lines discuss the speaker's experience outdoors, whereas the last 6 discuss his experience upon entering his own home. The "overrun/with shade" does violence to this classical balance to force a rhyme in a way that Quevedo would have found weird, if not in outright poor taste. Likewise, enjambments that split phrasal verbs such as "walked/about" in lines 12-13 are also peculiarly modern and not in keeping with the classical baroque aesthetic, particularly not in a poem with a theme, tone and music as solemn as this one's.

"I saw/ my old room yellowed with the sickening breath/ of age" seems egregious, even in a poetic translation. The original literally reads "I saw that it was despoiled, the remnants of an aged room." Though "anciana" can mean "elderly" and usually describes a person, the main metaphor is not anthropomorphic, but rather a suggestion of ancient, abandoned ruins. I can't shake the feeling that the image of sickness and pallor was employed simply to force the rhyme "breath" to go with the "death" of the final line.

Speaking of the final lines, "about, and everything I looked at bore/ a warning of the wasted gaze of death" is not only slightly incomprehensible, but also un-Baroque. The original Spanish reads "and I did not find a thing to rest my eyes upon/ that was not a reminder of death." The double negative lending force to a positive statement (a rhetorical figure also known by the two-dollar word "litotes,") balanced neatly over two whole lines, is what gives this poem's conclusion a kind of epigrammatic resonance. Barnstone's version, marred as the penultimate line is by the enjambed "about," quickly degenerates into phrase-making with a "warning" and a "wasted gaze." This poem, though a fine work by Barnstone, doesn't sound like Quevedo at all. It sounds like Barnstone's idea of how *he* would have written it. In my view, this renders it unsuccessful.

That said, Barnstone does do a much better job with the later poets: Borges, Lorca, Hernandez and Machado, whose modern aesthetic and tones are a little closer to those of his original poetry. Even though he uses the same stylistic tricks to find rhymes (such as odd enjambments and peculiar paraphrases) they seem less offensive in the modern poets because they are less foreign to their aesthetic. I found myself coming upon passages by Lorca and Hernandez that seemed as perfect as a translation could be, like the following four lines by Lorca from "Night of Sleepless love"

Climbing the night, we two in the full moon,
I wept and you were laughing. Your disdain
became a god, and my resentments soon
were morning doves and moments in a chain...

This passage is paced very differently from the original Spanish. Nonetheless, it still sounds plausibly like Lorca.

Borges in particular fares spectacularly well in Barnstone's versions, probably because Borges collaborated in their revision! In fact, I'd go so far as to say that there is no better translator of Borges' poetry than Barnstone. He has a unique ear for Borges' oddities and idiosyncratic shifts of thought. Even when he deviates from Borges' text, he still manages to sound like Borges.

In conclusion:

Buy this book for (mostly) excellent renderings of Lorca, Hernandez, Machado and Borges. If it's translations of Quevedo and Sor Juana Ines De la Cruz you're after, be prepared for a much more uneven, and occasionally jarring, performance.

Six masters of the Spanish sonnet
It was in new condition and the poetry is in Spanish with English translation.Worth reading, especially the comments by the author who is very knowledgeable with the subject.

Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet
This book is more than I expected. Excellent biographical information and literary context for the six authors. Relates the work of six great Spanish poets of different epochs. The translations are very helpful for someone who knows some Spanish. I would have preferred more literal and less poetic translations.(See Sor Juana de la Cruz, "En perseguirme, Mundo, que interesas? ...") Even a fine poet like Barnstone must take liberties with the original when he turns a Spanish sonnet into an English sonnet. This book is invaluable to the amateur and, I would assume, to the professional as well.

Masterful Translations of Spanish Sonnets
The sonnet form was introduced to Spain from Sicily in the fifteenth century through the writing of El Marqués de Santillana (1398-1458), a poet who wrote Petrarchan sonnets in Spanish. During the Renaissance, the Italian sonnet made its way to most of the countries of Western Europe. In England, Edmund Spenser changed the Petrarchan rhyming form of 'abba abba cdecde' to 'abab bcbc cdcd ee,' and William Shakespeare wrote 154 sonnets with the form 'abab cdcd efef gg.' As Willis Barnstone says in the introduction to his book, 'Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet,' 'the Spanish sonnet, a literary vagabond in courtly dress, began in the court of the Sicilian Frederic II, went up to England, and finally, seven centuries after its Italian birth, with its picaresque wits and form intact, dropped down just above the Antarctic Circle to appear in the poems of the Argentine Anglophile [his maternal grandmother was English] Borges.' Professor Barnstone goes on to present a thorough history of the evolution of the Spanish sonnet and a colorful biography of six Spanish language poets who used the form. His writing is informed by his long friendship with Jorge Luis Borges. Barnstone offers here a sampling of 112 Spanish sonnets by these six masters, placed side by side along with his own magnificent translations.

Francisco de Quevedo (1580-1645) is described as a 'monstruo de la naturaleza' [monster of nature] because of his prodigious outpouring of writing. 'Like Swift, Dostoyevski, and Kafka, he is one of the most tormented spirits and visionaries of world literature ['El Buscón' (The Swindler), 1626, is his masterpiece] and also one of the funniest writers ever to pick up a sharp, merciless pen.' Though Quevedo's sonnets are at times scatological and darkly satirical, they are also humorous and hopeful.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648/51-1695) was a Mexican discalced Carmelite nun who is considered by some religious scholars to be the first female theologian of the Americas. Although I was familiar with her love poems and her articulate defense of a woman's right to write in 'Response to Sor Filotea,' I had not read her sonnets in translation before. As he does with all six sonneteers, Barnstone faithfully maintains Sor Juana's rhyming, meter, and cadence in his translations of her sonnets. His analysis encompasses her writing and her life, including some critique of Octavio Paz's definitive biography, 'Sor Juana, or The Traps of Faith.'

Antonio Machada (1875-1939) recalls the landscape of his native Sevilla in his sonnets. In, 'El amor y la sierra' (Love and the Sierra), he writes, 'Calabaga por agria serranía / una tarde, entre roca cenicienta. (He was galloping over harsh sierra ground, / one afternoon, amid the ashen rock).' Barnstone calls Machado 'the Wang Wei of Spain' because 'he uses the condition of external nature to express his passion.' As Petrarch had his Laura, Machado had his Guiomar (Pilar de Valderrama). In 'Dream Below the Sun,' he writes, 'Your poet / thinks of you. Distance / is of lemon and violet, / the fields still green. / Come with me, Guiomar. / The sierra will absorb us. / The day is wearing out / from oak to oak.'

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936) was a Spanish poet and playwright who was affected by Luis de Góngorra and gongorismo. His 'Gypsy Ballads' was 'the most popular book of poetry in the Spanish language in his time.' Barnstone states that 'his closest attachment, his passion, was the painter Salvador Dalí,' with whom he carried on a six year love affair. Luis Buñuel castigated him for his Andalusianism; indeed, Lorca felt that Buñuel's satiric and surrealist film 'Un chien andalu' mocked him. After traveling to New York and Havana, Lorca became 'the playwright of Spain' with his brilliant 'Bodas de Sangre' (Blood Wedding). His 'Sonnets of Dark Love,' unpublished during his lifetime, were probably written to Rafael Rodríguez Rapún, an engineering student. Barnstone believes that 'dark love' is an allusion to San Juan de la Cruz's 'dark night of the soul.'

Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) of Argentina considered himself a poet, though he was a master at prose.According to Barnstone, because of the blindness that afflicted Borges in midlife, 'he could compose and polish a sonnet while waiting for a bus or walking down the street' and then later dictate it from memory. 'Borges's speech authenticated his writing, his writing authenticated his speech. To have heard him was to read him. To have read him was to have heard him.' In 'Un ciego' (A Blindman), he says, 'No sé cuál es la cara que me mira / Cuando miro la cara del espejo; / No sé qué anciano acecha en su reflejo / Con silenciosa y ya cansada ira. (I do not know what face looks back at me / When I look at the mirrored face, nor know / What aged man conspires in the glow / Of the glass, silent and with tired fury.)'

Miguel Hernández (1910-1942), a poor goatherd and pastor from the province of Alicante in Spain, wrote his best poetry while imprisoned during the Spanish Civil War. 'In the prisons, Hernández became,' in Barnstone's opinion, 'the consummate poet of light, darkness, soul, time, and death.' One of his poems, 'Llegó con tres heridas' (He came with three wounds), is a popular song, recorded by Joan Baez on her 'Gracias a La Vida' album.

'Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet' is recommended to all who love this poetic form and want to know more about the lives of these remarkable poets. A good index and list of references are included for further study.

The Cream of Spanish Sonets
The translation is marvelous: I read them all before in Spanish.And the Selection? Amazingly good ! Congratulations to the translator! It`s not an easy feat to translate Garcìa Lorca or Sor Juana Inès de la Cruz...eoither The Master: Quevedo...or Machado ( the name is ANTONIO, NOT ANTONIA ) The person who selected the poems is really knowing... If you want to read and enjoy the very best of Spanish written sonets...This Book is a Poetic "Bible " Don`t miss it ! ... Read more

Product Description
In January 1939, Antonio Machado would cross the border from Spain to France accompanied by his mother, traveling, as was his custom, with only the essentials. He died three weeks later in the small French town of Collioure, his appalling state a warning sign of his impending passing. Machado was sixty-four. Ian Gibson, internationally renowned Hispanist, has dedicated years of research and work to give us Machado’s life story –a passionate journey through the private life, philosophy and work of a man who is considered today one of the most read and loved Spanish poets of all times.

Description in Spanish: Antonio Machado procedía de una familia sevillana intelectual con hondas raíces republicanas. Madrileño a partir de los 8 años, sin olvidar nunca su infancia en la capital andaluza, su paso por la Institución Libre de Enseñanza lo marcó indeleblemente y el París finisecular le hizo el regalo inestimable de la poesía simbolista.

En enero de 1939, cercano el final, Machado cruzó la frontera con su madre en condiciones deplorables. Murió tres semanas después, a los 64 años, en el pequeño pueblo francés de Collioure. Ligero, como siempre, de equipaje. Hoy es uno de los poetas españoles más leídos y amados de todos los tiempos. Ésta es su historia.

Ian Gibson lleva años trabajando e investigando sobre la vida de Antonio Machado. Por fin, fruto de esa ingente labor, salen a la luz todos los detalles y todo lo que no se ha contado nunca sobre el gran escritor español de la Generación del 98. Un apasionante recorrido por su vida íntima, sus obras, sus amigos, sus enemigos, su ideología… Imprescindible su lectura para comprender un poco mejor la España de esos tiempos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great service!
The book arrived when I was told it would and it was in excellent condition.

Ligero de Equipaje
Extraordinaria investigacion sobre uno de mis poetas preferidos, la vida de Antonio machado se expone objetivamente, con rigor de una investigacion cientifica en una etapa sumamente compleja pero interesante, que sin lugar a dudas explica la vida reciente de este Pais maravilloso en distintos ambitos, desde lo socieconomico, hasta lo cultural. ... Read more