I Have Walked Many Paths

He andado muchos caminos he abierto muchas veredas; he navegado en cien mares y atracado en cien riberas. En todas partes he visto caravanas de tristeza, soberbios y melancólicos borrachos de sombra negra. Y pedantones al paño que miran, callan y piensan que saben, porque no beben el vino de las tabernas.

Mala gente que camina y va apestando la tierra... Y en todas partes he visto gentes que danzan o juegan, cuando pueden, y laboran sus cuatro palmos de tierra. Nunca, si llegan a un sitio, preguntan a donde llegan. Cuando caminan, cabalgan a lomos de mula vieja. Y no conocen la prisa ni aún en los días de fiesta. Donde hay vino, beben vino, donde no hay vino, agua fresca. Son buenas gentes que viven, laboran, pasan y sueñan, y en un día como tantos, descansan bajo la tierra.

I have walked many paths, I have opened many trails; I have sailed on a hundred seas and docked at a hundred shores. Everywhere I have seen caravans of sadness, proud and melancholic drunks of black shadow. And pedants to the cloth who look, stay silent and think they know, because they do not drink the wine of the taverns.

Bad people who walk and go stinking the earth... And everywhere I have seen people who dance or play, when they can, and work their four spans of land. Never, if they arrive somewhere, do they ask where they arrive. When they walk, they ride on the back of an old mule. And they do not know haste, not even on feast days. Where there is wine, they drink wine, where there is no wine, fresh water. They are good people who live, work, pass and dream, and on a day like many, they rest under the earth.