Thursday 7 March 2013

I Have Walked Many Roads - He Andado Muchos Caminos


I am grateful to one of my Facebook friends who posted this poem in the original. It has helped me on my belated journey through poetry in the Spanish language. Reading the poem struck a chord – the idea of travelling to other places to find that there are other visitors who have not respected the traditions and lives of those who lived there.

I looked for English translations on the internet but those I came across did not completely satisfy me. When reading Spanish poetry I find that sometimes there are exquisite phrases that just don’t make the transition easily into English. A deliberate ambiguity may be lost, a subtlety overlooked.

Some words do not directly translate in context and still retain their semantic value. ‘Andando’ – yes ‘walked’, but maybe ‘travelled’ or ‘trodden’ would be better? ‘Abierto muchas veredas’ – ‘found many paths’, ok, but more literally ‘opened’, perhaps ‘cut’ or ‘carved’ would be better. Anyway I have been through those thoughts and below is my (humble!) effort.

To me, the poem is a reminder that those who travel to other places should do so respectfully, should not be arrogant, should have some humility and should honour the people, the traditions and the land. That exhortation would include those who go to other places on our behalf, who gather the raw materials for all of us who demand goods and products as part of our enjoyment of the benefits of the modern global economy.

As a traveller I realise that my mere presence brings about change, but I don’t claim the right to expect the people I meet to change so they are more to my liking. If I am to become a better person then I, myself, have to learn from these experiences – I have to be willing to change…

 

I Have Walked Many Roads 

I have walked many roads,
I have found many paths;
I have sailed a hundred seas,
and landed on a hundred shores. 

Everywhere I have seen
caravans of sadness,
sober and melancholy
drunk with black shadow,
and pedants of cloth
who look, quietly, and think
that they know, because they do not drink
the wine in the taverns. 

Bad people who walk
and in walking soil the land… 

And in all the places I have seen
people who dance or play,
when they can, and work
their four spans of land.

Never, when they come to a place,
do they ask where to go.
When they make their way, they ride
on the back of an old mule,
and do not know to hurry
not even on the days of the fiesta.
Where they have wine, they drink wine;
where they have no wine, fresh water. 

They are good people who live,
work, pass the time and dream,
and on a day like many,
rest beneath the soil. 

English translation by James Rammell. With all due acknowledgements: Antonio Machado.

 
 
 
 
Moving the animals: Peru.


He Andado Muchos Caminos

He andado muchos caminos
he abierto muchas veredas;
he navegado en cien mares
y atracado en cien riberas. 

En todas partes he visto
caravanas de tristeza,
soberbios y melancólicos
borrachos de sombra negra. 

Y pedantones al paño
que miran, callan y piensan
que saben, porque no beben
el vino de las tabernas.

Mala gente que camina
y va apestando la tierra…

Y en todas partes e visto
gentes que danzan o juegan,
cuando pueden, y laboran
sus cuatro palmos de tierra. 

Nunca, si llegan a un sitio
preguntan a donde llegan.
Cuando caminan, cabalgan
a lomos de mula vieja. 

Y no conocen la prisa
ni 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 un día como tantos,
descansan bajo la tierra. 

Antonio Machado

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