Wanderer by Antonio Machado

Your editor is taking a trip to Spain this week, so here's a poem by the great Spanish poet Antonio Machado (translated by Betty Jean Craige)


Wanderer, your footsteps are
the road, and nothing more;
wanderer, there is no road,
the road is made by walking.
By walking one makes the road,
and upon glancing behind
one sees the path
that never will be trod again.
Wanderer, there is no road--
Only wakes upon the sea.



Born in Seville in 1875, Antonio Machado is considered one of the great Spanish poets.  In 1939, he died of an illness he contracted while fleeing from the armies of Francisco Franco during the Spanish Civil War.