This morning in class, the conversation with the sangha brought us to this poem. My 7 am class is bilingual, so here is the original poem (Spanish) and a translation I really liked, from an interesting website, favoritepoem.org, which includes videos of people telling their stories and reading a favorite poem (Favorite Poem Project).
I included as well 4 videos of Juan Manuel Serrat singing his famous song "Cantares", based on this poem.
Machado, “Caminante, no hay camino/ Traveler, There Is No Road”
Antonio Machado
“Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;
Caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace el camino,
y al volver la vista atrás
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.
Caminante, no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar.”
Traveler, your footprints
are the only road, nothing else.
Traveler, there is no road;
you make your own path as you walk.
As you walk, you make your own road,
and when you look back
you see the path
you will never travel again.
Traveler, there is no road;
only a ship’s wake on the sea.
Listen to the song by Joan Manuel Serrat. I include here 4 videos, so that you can travel in time with me, and if you don't know this song yet, have an idea of the impact that it has in my world.
Hello Susana,
I'm glad that I came across your blog while searching for 'For loneliness' from John O'Donohue. Thank you for sharing this beautiful poem of Machado! I discovered Joan Manuel Serrat a few years ago with his song "Romance de Curro el Palmo" which I love, so it was lovely to find him again here! ✨