Antonio Machado Quotations

Antonio Cipriano José María y Francisco de Santa Ana Machado y Ruiz, known as Antonio Machado (26 July, 1875 – 22 February, 1939), was a Spanish poet and one of the leading figures of the literary movement known as the Generation of '98.

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Caminante, son tus huellas
el camino, y nada más;
caminante, no hay camino,
se hace camino al andar.
Al andar se hace 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.
- 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.
  - "Proverbios y cantares XXIX" [Proverbs and Songs 29], Campos de Castilla (1912); trans. Betty Jean Craige in Selected Poems of Antonio Machado (Louisiana State University Press, 1979)