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Secular or Eclectic
20th Century

About Antonio Machado

Timeline (1875 - 1939)

Antonio Machado, Antonio Machado poetry, Secular or Eclectic, Secular or Eclectic poetry,  poetry, [TRADITION SUB2] poetry,  poetry

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English version by
Ivan M. Granger

Original Language
Spanish

Hope says

Commentary by
Ivan M. Granger

Themes
  Heart
 
 
 
 

 

Recommended Books

Antonio Machado: Selected Poems, by Antonio Machado / Translated by Alan S. Trueblood
Border of a Dream: Selected Poems of Antonio Machado, by Antonio Machado / Translated by Willis Barnstone
The Enlightened Heart: An Anthology of Sacred Poetry, by Stephen Mitchell
Six Masters of the Spanish Sonnet: Francisco de Quevedo, Sor Juana Ines de La Cruz, Antonio Machado, Federico Garcia Lorca, Jorge Luis Borges, Miguel, Translated by Willis Barnstone
Times Alone: Selected Poems of Antonio Machado, Translated by Robert Bly

     Hope says: One day
you will see her, if you wait well.
Says despair:
She is only your bitterness.
Beat, my heart... Not all
has been swallowed by the earth.

 

 

 

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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

This is a heartbreaking poem, one that wrestles with that great empty space left by death. But these lines have a quiet courage as well. The tension between hope and despair seems equal and impossible to resolve, but his soul makes a stand and gives that final nudge in favor of hope and the world of the living.


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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
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