by Antonio Machado

Born in Seville, Spain, on July 26, 1875, Antonio Machado y Ruiz would come to be regarded as one of the finest poets of his generation and one of the most important Spanish writers of the twentieth century. The Machado family moved to Madrid when Antonio was eight, and he later attended the Institución Libre de Enseñanza (Free Institution of Learning) there. Machado married Leonor Izquierdo in 1909. He went on to labor briefly as a translator in Paris, France, and more permanently as a French teacher in various parts of Spain. Written in Soria, Spain, Campos de Castilla, his third book of poetry, was published the same year his young wife died of tuberculosis. Shaken by his wife’s death, Machado moved to Baeza, where he composed an additional section published in a revised edition of this third book in 1917. Literary...