Antonio Machado (poet)

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Antonio Machado
Antonio Machado's grave

Antonio Machado (born July 26, 1875 in Seville , Andalusia , † February 22, 1939 in Collioure , France) was a Spanish poet .

Life

Machado was born in Seville in 1875. His parents were the writer and anthropologist Antonio Machado Álvarez and Ana Ruiz. From 1881 he attended the Institutución Libre de Enseñanza school , where he discovered his love for literature; it was not until 1900 that he graduated from high school. Economic problems temporarily forced him to work as an actor. Together with his brother, Manuel Machado , he traveled to Paris , where he worked as a translator for a French publisher. During his stay in Paris he came into contact with the great French symbolists Jean Moréas , Paul Fort and Paul Verlaine , but also with other contemporary writers such as Rubén Darío and Oscar Wilde . These encounters consolidated Machado's resolve to devote himself to poetry.

From 1901 he published poems; In 1907 Soledades appeared . Gallerias. Otros poemas. In 1912 he published the Campos de Castilla ; In 1907 Machado was offered a job at a school as a French teacher in Soria . There he met Leonor Izquierdo, a daughter of his landlord. Antonio Machado (34 years old) and Leonor Izquierdo (15 years old) married in 1909. In 1911 the couple moved to Paris, where Machado studied philosophy and became familiar with many works of French literature. In the same year his wife was diagnosed with tuberculosis and they returned to Spain; She died in 1912. He then left Soria and moved to Baeza in Andalusia, but it took a long time to recover from the blow and to publish again. He also wrote dramas with his brother Manuel. Various teaching activities secured his livelihood. Between 1919 and 1931 he worked as a French teacher in Segovia . Here he had a secret affair with Pilar Valderrama, a married mother of three children, who is mentioned in his work as "Guiomar".

From 1931 he politically supported the Republicans . When the Spanish Civil War broke out , he was living in Madrid while his brother was in the insurgent zone. Valderrama was in Portugal. Machado never saw either of them again. Together with his old mother and uncle , he was evacuated to Valencia and then to Barcelona in 1938 . In January 1939, shortly before the Republicans were defeated, he fled to France with his mother. As soon as he arrived and only a few kilometers from the Spanish border, he died exhausted, three days before his mother. His grave in Collioure is adorned to this day with the flag of the Spanish Republic; Letters for the poet are still arriving in a mailbox in the cemetery.

plant

Antonio Machado was a poet deeply influenced by his Castilian homeland. His language is minimalist . He is considered the leading representative of the Generación del 98 , a group of Spanish intellectuals who, after the Spanish debacle in Cuba in 1898, wanted to make themselves and all Spaniards aware of the decadence of their country.

Machado's poems often describe the Castilian landscape. His central theme is loneliness, as the title of his main work Soledades shows . His formulation of the two Spain in the poem Proverbios y Cantares became the catchphrase for the harsh contrasts between right and left in Spain.

Complete digital edition

At the beginning of 2020, Machado's complete works became public domain . The Spanish National Library is making almost all of Machado's works available online for this occasion. The collection includes first editions, manuscripts, title pages, and a variety of other documents.

Work edition

A German Machado's complete works has Fritz Vogelgsang in Ammann Verlag published. It comprises the volumes Soledades (1996), Campos de Castilla - Castilian Landscapes (2001), Juan de Mairena (2005), Nuevas Canciones - New Songs / De un cancionero Apocrifo - From an apocryphal Cancionero (2007) and La Guerra - The war (2010, announced).

Poetry

  • Soledades: poesías (1903)
  • Soledades. Galerías. Otros poemas (1907)
  • Campos de Castilla (1912)
  • Páginas escogidas (1917)
  • Poesías completas (1917)
  • Poemas (1917)
  • Soledades y otras poesías (1928)
  • Soledades, galerías y otros poemas (1919)
  • Nuevas canciones (1924)
  • Poesías completas (1899-1925) (1928)
  • Poesías completas (1899-1930) (1933)
  • La tierra de Alvargonzález (1933)
  • Poesías completas (1936)
  • La guerra (1936-1937) (1937)
  • Madrid: baluarte de nuestra guerra de independencia (1937)
  • La tierra de Alvargonzález y Canciones del Alto Duero (1938)

prose

  • Juan de Mairena (sentencias, donaires, apuntes y recuerdos de un profesor apócrifo) (1936)

theatre

(with Manuel Machado)

  • 1926 - Desdichas de la fortuna o Julianillo Valcárcel
  • 1927 - Juan de Mañara
  • 1928 - Las adelfas
  • 1930 - La Lola se va a los puertos
  • 1930 - La prima Fernanda
  • 1932 - La duquesa de Benamejí
  • 1932 - Teatro completo, I , Madrid, Renacimiento.

Settings

The Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola set Quattro liriche di Antonio Machado for soprano and piano (1948).

Luigi Nono used Machado's poems in his compositions "Ha venido". Canciones para Silvia for soprano and 6-part soprano choir (1960) and Canciones a Guiomar (1962/63) for solo soprano, 6-part female choir and instruments.

The following poems by Antonio Machado were set to music and sung by Joan Manuel Serrat : A un olmo seco, Cantares, Del pasado efímero, Guitarra del Mesón, He andado muchos caminos, La saeta, Las moscas, Llanto y coplas, Parábola.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Tommaso Koch: La obra de Machado ya es de todos . In: El País . Madrid January 3, 2020, p. 23 .