Cantares (Joan Manuel Serrat) Poemas de Antonio Machado

In 1969 a young Catalan singer, Joan Manel Serrat, published an LP with songs based in the poems of a Spanish poet Antonio Machado. The records contained 12 poems that Serrat that he trnasformed into songs:

Songs on the Album 'Dedicado a Antonio Machado, poeta'

Cantares
Retrato
Guitarra del Meson
Las Moscas
Llanto y Coplas
La Saeta
Del Pasado Efimero (Españolito)
Españolito
A un Olmo Seco
He Andado Muchos Caminos
En Coulliure
Parabola

Historical background:

Antonio Machado was primarily a poet and one of the leading figures of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generation of '98. He is recognized for his profound and reflective poetry, which often explores themes of sadness, loss, and existential contemplation.  His poems show an engagement with humanity on one side, and an almost Taoist contemplation of existence on the other, a synthesis that, according to Machado, echoed the most ancient popular wisdom.  Additionally, he was involved in playwriting, collaborating with his brother on several works, and later published philosophical reflections.

Antonio Machado was in Madrid when the Spanish Civil War broke out in July 1936. The war was to separate him forever from his brother Manuel (a poet and a playwright) who was trapped in the Nationalist (Francoist) zone. Machado was evacuated with his elderly mother and uncle to Valencia, and then to Barcelona in 1938. Finally, as Franco closed in on the last Republican strongholds, they were obliged to move across the French border to Collioure in the South of France. Three weeks later, on 22 February 1939, Antonio Machado died at 63 years of age, just three days before his mother, Ana Ruiz.

Cantares from "Proverbios y cantares" - Campos de Castilla, 1912

original record

CANTARES
The Spanish poet passed away on February 22, 1939, in Collioure, France, while his mother, Ana Ruiz, died just three days later on February 25, 1939, after fleeing the Spanish Civil War together

CANTARES
Todo pasa y todo queda,
pero lo nuestro es pasar,
pasar haciendo caminos,
caminos sobre la mar.

Nunca perseguí la gloria,
ni dejar en la memoria
de los hombres mi canción;
yo amo los mundos sutiles,
ingrávidos y gentiles,
como pompas de jabón.

Me gusta verlos pintarse
de sol y grana, volar
bajo el cielo azul, temblar
súbitamente y quebrarse...
Nunca perseguí la gloria.

Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino y nada más;

caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.

Wanderer, there is no path, the path is made by walking.

Al andar se hace camino

y al volver la vista atrás

Walking makes the path, and on glancing back
se ve la senda que nunca
se ha de volver a pisar.

one sees the path that will never be trod again.

Caminante no hay camino
sino estelas en la mar...

Wanderer, there is no path, just wakes upon the sea.

Hace algún tiempo en ese lugar
donde hoy los bosques se visten de espinos
se oyó la voz de un poeta gritar:
«Caminante no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar...»

golpe a golpe, verso a verso...

Murió el poeta lejos del hogar.
Le cubre el polvo de un país vecino.
Al alejarse le vieron llorar.
«Caminante no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar...»

golpe a golpe, verso a verso...

Cuando el jilguero no puede cantar,
cuando el poeta es un peregrino,
cuando de nada nos sirve rezar.
«Caminante no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar...»

golpe a golpe, verso a verso.

A young Joan Manel Serrat in Chile, 1970