A Loose edit/translation from "Proverbias y cantares" ("Proverbs and Song-verse") by Antonio Machado
I
The eye you see is not
An eye because you see it;
But because it sees you.
II
To talk,
Ask, first;
Then…listen.
III
In between living and dreaming
Comes another thing.
Divine it.
IV
Find in your mirror the Friend,
The other who keeps you company.
V
After the living and the dreaming
Comes the most important thing:
Waking up.
VI
A new age? Does the flame
Still explode in the forge?
Does the water still
Cascade to canals?
VII
Today is still always.
VIII
Sun in Aries. My window
Is open to the cold air.
—Oh, rumor of distant water!—
Sunset wakes up the river.
IX
In the old city
—Oh, towers anchored with storks!—
No more bells are shaking
And from the solitary land
The sound of water entering rocks
X
One more time, my attention
Is water's captive;
But it's water in the living
Rock of my heart.
XI
Can you tell, from water's sound,
If it's from the mountaintop or valley,
From fountain, garden or grove?
XII
How unexpected:
To find the balmy leaves of roses
Smell like ripened lemons.
XIII
Never trace your boundary,
Or edit your profile;
All of that's only of the outside.
XIV
So now it's spring,
Hover over flowers;
Don't chew on wax.
XV
Search for your complement,
Who walks always beside you
And is usually your opposite.
XVI
In my solitude
I see things very clearly
That are not there.
XVII
My friends are with me
In my solitude;
When they are near,
They're so far away!
XVIII
Good are water and thirst;
Good are shadow and sun;
The honey from the rosemary flower,
The honey from the flowerless fields.
XIX
At the side of the road
There's a spring of stone,
And a canteen of earth—glug, glug—
That no one removes.
XX
Divine this riddle:
What's meant by the spring,
The canteen and the water?
XXI
…Still, I've seen people drink
From the muddy scum of ponds, even.
Thirst is capricious…
XXII
Sing, sing, sing
Beside his tomato—
The cricket in his cage.
XXIII
Singers, leave
The claps and cheers
For the others.
XXIV
Awaken, singers;
The end of echoes,
Let the voices begin.
XXV
But don't seek dissonances;
For, in the end, none exist,
All tunes people dance to.
XXVI
It's not the fundamental I
That's the quest of the poet
It's the essential you.
XXVII
To this pay attention:
A solitary heart
Is not a heart.
XXVIII
Bees, singers,
It's not the honey, it's the flowers
XXIX
Your truth? No, the Truth;
Come seek it with me.
Yours, you can keep.
XXX
—"But art?..."
—"It’s simply play,
Which is to say, simply life,
Which is to say, simply fire.
See the coal encendering."
